


The Origin

by TotallyNotASecretAO3Account



Series: The Origin Series [1]
Category: Cartoon Therapy (Web Series), Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2020-12-24 22:20:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 41,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21106928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TotallyNotASecretAO3Account/pseuds/TotallyNotASecretAO3Account
Summary: It took years, but humanity has finally begun exploring the universe. Led by Thomas Sanders, the crew aboard the SS Revelation became the first human beings to escape the Solar System and finally learn what lies beyond the stars.They soon learn that they are not alone, but not in a way that anyone could have ever guessed. There are beings that have lived right besides them since the beginning of their existence, both friend and foe. Their time of silent and unknown coexistence is over; they each have a promise, one they all intend to keep.And those promises could very well lead to the death of not only Thomas and his crew, but all of humanity.(AKA Each of the Sides are personified versions of the planets in our Solar system. Endgame familial drlamp)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger warnings are in the end notes, if you wanna skip down there real fast to see. Chapter 1 only has one minor triggering warning.

“Oh my god…” A grin slowly spread over Thomas’ face, the realization of what he and his crew had just accomplished beginning to sink in. “We did it.”  
Cheers erupted across the ship among every person aboard. Laughter seeping with relief, joy, disbelief, and wonder was all that could be heard from any room for several moments. It was a celebration for everyone involved. Finally, Thomas pulled up a chair to stand atop of. A smile on his face, he addressed everyone.  
“We did it guys; Tonight, we made history. It took almost a full year, but we, on September 20th, 2519, are officially…” He paused for dramatic effect before he continued, “The first human beings to leave our solar system.”  
Cheers took over the ship once again and Thomas laughed along with them. He only stopped when he felt a tug on his arm. He looked over only to see the ship’s navigator, Remy Sparks, climbing up onto the chair beside him. He hung on to Thomas’s arm and seemed to magically keep the balance needed for neither of them to fall off the rather small sized chair.  
“You know what that means girls?” Remy grinned, “Time to celebrate!!! Let’s party!”  
The crew, of course, happily agreed to this idea. Still cheering, the room quickly emptied as everyone headed to the ship’s dining room. Save for Thomas and one of the pilots, Joan, the room was now completely empty.  
The two friends stood in silence for several minutes, staring out into the deep expanse of unexplored space ahead of them. Mostly void, partially stars, they could only imagine what awaited them next. This was truly uncharted territory - sure, telescopes and satellites and some robots had flown by here, but no humans had. There were some things that were not possible to know unless they were discovered through human eyes, and even more that were not possible to experience unless through a human body. As advanced as Earth’s technology had become, there were so many unknowns that they would soon encounter. So many discoveries to make and so many dreams to fulfill. Once this trip was finished, life for mankind would be forever changed. This was the chance of a lifetime; that was a fact.  
. “Can you believe it?” Joan finally broke the silence, looking over at their friend with a wide smile. “We made it. We actually made it.”  
Thomas shook his head, chuckling in disbelief. “I honestly can’t. I keep waiting to wake up and find myself in bed, back on Earth, realizing this was all just some insane dream.” He smiled, staring out at a bright, distant star as they flew by it. “To think, only two years ago we weren’t even sure if we were gonna be able to even leave just Earth. Now we’re leaving the solar. system.”  
“We’re not leaving it, we already did leave it. We completed the ‘leaving it’ stage. Also,” Joan grinned, “Unlike someone, I believed in us from the beginning and totally knew we were gonna do this. Never had a shred of doubt we’d make history. The doubt was all yours, my friend.” They laughed as Thomas playfully shoved them.  
“Okay but in all seriousness,” Thomas said, “We’re gonna be in the history books. We’ve already got tons of news channels emailing us, along with practically every political leader ever. We’re all that anyone is talking about. We’re gonna be celebrities when we get back.”  
“When we get back? Dude, think about now! We won’t be back for a couple years at least, we gotta explore! Focus on that, not about everyone back on Earth.”  
"Yeah, you’re right,” Thomas laughed, “So, what do you think is ahead of us?”  
“Multiple asteroids if we don’t turn around right now.”  
Both Thomas and Joan spun around at these words, and saw the holographic form of Giovanni appear, a panicked look on his face as he began to speak rapidly.  
“We’re about to cross the path of probably several hundred asteroids; they’re directly ahead of us! If we don’t turn around about five minutes ago then we are going to get hit!”  
“Wait, how?!” Joan exclaimed, “Aren’t our sensors supposed to pick up on stuff like that? Why didn’t you turn the ship around earlier, when they were far away!”  
“They appeared out of nowhere!” Giovanni exclaimed, folding his arms and looking crossed, “And I lost the controls. I can’t control the ship. You need to switch it to manual immediately or we will crash.”  
“How did you lose the controls -”  
"I don’t know! But you need to listen to me because right now, you clearly hate me and are not listening at all!” Giovanni shouted, his voice growing louder with each word spoken, “So either go do what I say or ignore me, let chaos take over, and we all die because you can’t listen!”  
But by this time Joan and Thomas had stopped listening to. the AI’s overdramatic rant. Thomas began planning,  
“I’ll go get Talyn and Remy, you head to the command center and start fixing our course,” He quickly ordered. With a nod, Joan ran out of the room to do just that with Thomas running close behind.  
Giovanni, now left alone in the room, sighed.  
“Oh, don’t thank me for letting you know. Just keep taking me for granted. I don’t need a thanks - it’s not like I just probably saved your lives or anything. Not like you still hate me anyways. B*tch.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings at the end

“How did we not notice this sooner?!” Talyn exclaimed, quickly throwing themself into the co-pilot’s seat and grabbing the controls. “There’s so many! There’s no possible way we could’ve missed this!”  
“I have no idea,” Remy shook his head and stared at the screen in front of him, trying to plot the best course to take that would take them away from the danger. He took a sip of his Starbucks (Hey, they started to donate two years worth of coffee to every space exploring crew for public relations to any crew that wanted it. There was no way Remy was going to pass up that offer.)  
“We’re already so deep in that they’re surrounding us on all sides. It really should not have been possible for us not to know, or to get here without crashing in the first place!” Remy shook his head, looking down thoughtfully, “Really the only thing we can do is to turn directly around, but we could crash that way too.”  
“That’s exactly what I said earlier!!!” Giovanni exclaimed, before turning to Joan, “I’m an AI programmed to tell you what to do in situations exactly like this, why won’t you listen to me??? Why do you hate me!!!”  
“To be fair, you did try to convince us that Pluto didn’t exist and it was okay to keep going straight even though we would fly right into it.”  
“It was one glitch! It’s not my fault I read ‘Pluto is still not a planet’ wrong.”  
“Guys not the time!” Thomas exclaimed.  
“Uh, speaking of glitch…” Talyn interrupted, sharing a nervous glance with Joan, “We can’t get control of the ship either. We don’t have access.”  
“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Remy shouted suddenly, turning away from the mapping screen in front of him, a panicked look covering his face.  
“It means we can’t control the ship either!” Joan exclaimed, pressing a multitude of buttons and trying to override the unknown factor that was blocking them, “Giovanni, what’s going on?! I thought you didn’t have control either!”  
“I don’t!” Giovanni folded his arms, staring accusingly at Joan, “Don’t you trust me!? If I knew what was going on, I would have already told you.” He turned and pointed to the front window of the ship, “Right now, we are just floating in space. No one has access to any controls at all. Something is preventing us from working anything like that on the ship.”  
“Is it a virus? Were we hacked?” Talyn demanded.  
Giovanni shook his head, “I cannot see any problems at all. There’s nothing showing up at all. Whatever the problem is, it’s not technological. There’s no glitch. It’s something I wasn’t programmed to check for or deal with, or even know how to recognize it.” He then turned his attention to Thomas and started yelling, “Maybe if you didn’t hate me and listened to me the second I said something was wrong, we wouldn’t be in this situation right now!!!”  
“Stop arguing and focus!” Thomas shouted suddenly, his hands shaking slightly, though there was a visible effort to stay calm. He turned to Joan and Tayln, “Joan, you and Talyn keep trying to get control,” To Remy, “You go start getting the ship ready for an emergency lockdown and get everyone safe.”  
“And Giovanni, you keep trying to figure out what happened!” Once Thomas had finished giving out orders, everyone went to work. Even Giovanni let his holographic form disappear as he went in search of the problem (though, he couldn’t help but roll his eyes and mutter a few more rude comments before doing so).  
Thomas quietly sighed, but his relief was short lived. Though he had managed to make everyone focus on the problem at hand, the life threatening danger was still there right in front of their eyes. He faced the window, holding his breath as he watched a comet fly by their ship only a few hundred feet away.   
Before any real progress could be made, the lights above them all turned red. Alarms began to sound in their ears, and Giovanni returned. However, he was no longer his overdramatic self. The ships emergency mode had been activated, and so he was now a bright red color and was stuck repeating eight simple words over and over.  
“Alert. Collision incoming. Take cover immediately; lockdown initiating.”  
Everyone looked at each other in a panic - minus Remy, he had left before the doors were locked to go help the rest of the ship’s crew - and sprinted to their seats, buckling up immediately.  
“Ha ha.. So I guess we’re crashing now…” Joan laughed nervously, still desperately trying to control the ship. Everyone knew by now that the attempts were useless, but it made them feel ever so slightly better to be trying.  
“This was not how I wanted to spend my summer….dying…” Talyn mumbled. They had given up by now on getting the controls back. Instead, their gaze remained locked straight ahead, staring out into open space.   
“IT’S THERE!” Thomas suddenly screamed, pointing ahead. Sure enough, they now could see what the sensors had picked up before them. Hurtling through space, they all could see the asteroid rapidly growing bigger as it headed directly towards them. All of them, (Save for Giovanni, who was still stuck in emergency mode but had somehow managed to replace some of the words with ‘This happened because you didn’t trust me. Because you hate me. B*tch.”) squeezed their eyes shut as tightly as possible. None of them wanting to see their end with their own eyes.  
But the moments passed. The alarms remained on, and they could still see the flashing red lights from behind closed eyes… But no impact came. Nothing else changed.  
It was Thomas who gained the bravery to look first. He opened his eyes slowly, scared that the second he did, he’d see the asteroid hitting them.   
Instead, he saw two halves of them, passing by on each side of the ship…   
Split perfectly down the middle.  
Thomas quickly got out of his seat, and ran over to the front of the room, staring out in complete and utter shock at the sight in front of him. Not a single spec had managed to hit them… Which was impossible. There was no way that should have happened. He stared out, too amazed to care to look at anything else.  
But then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw it. A glimpse of purple, and a glowing face. Their eyes were perfectly white, but Thomas could tell that they were staring right back at him. A worried, yet blank expression, and a robe that blended into the universe behind them almost perfectly. But the most stunning feature was the faded halo around their head, golden yet glowing with a beautiful violet.  
But within the time Thomas took to blink, they were gone. Vanished, as though they had never existed in the first place. He shook his head, looking back at the same spot. But no one was there.  
He didn’t even notice that the alarms had ceased blaring and the lights had returned to normal until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He quickly turned to face whoever it was, and saw Joan’s relieved face.  
“We made it.”  
“What just happened??”  
“I have control of the ship again!” Everyone turned around and saw Giovanni smiling proudly, “Whatever the problem was, it’s gone. And all asteroids in our path? They’re gone.”  
“They’re just gone?” Talyn demanded, looking at Giovanni as though he were crazy, “What do you mean, they’re gone? Those don’t just disappear!”  
“Aside from the one that just almost hit us - that one is behind us - they disappeared just like how suddenly they appeared,” Giovanni explained, frowning, “The sensors seemed to have glitched, and when they came back online, they were all gone. I don’t know what happened, nothing I was programmed with has any reasoning for this at all.”  
“That makes no sense!” Joan exclaimed, before he turned to Thomas, ready to ask him what was wrong with Giovanni. But he stopped, “Dude, you okay?”  
“Huh?” Thomas snapped back into reality, looking away from the window, “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.”   
“Um, what just happened? Why aren’t we dead?”  
The four turned to look at the door, only to see Remy had returned, his sunglasses pulled down and a confused expression glued on his face.  
“I…” Thomas turned back to where he had seen the mysterious figure, before returning his gaze to Remy.  
“I really don’t know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings: Same cuss word as last chapter, and the crew almost crashes


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings in end notes. 2 of them for this chapter

“What was that???”   
Jupiter and Uranus turned around, seeing Saturn angrily storm up to them. They, of course, simply chose to smile innocently.  
“What do you mean?” Jupiter asked simply, “I told you we were going to make the journey difficult for them.”  
“No, you said you would mess them up a little to discourage them from going farther. You did NOT say you were going to try to kill them!” Saturn shouted, his voice growing louder with every passing word, “They were about to die! They would have if I did what you said and ignored them!”  
“So whaaaat?” Uranus whined, “You should’ve let them! It would’ve been fun to see. I haven’t seen a good ship crash in a few decades!”  
“They’re just exploring. We aren’t killing them yet.”  
“They’re just exploring?” Jupiter folded his arms across his chest, “You know that’s not all they’ve done. You know what exploring will do. They explored their home planet, and look what they did to it. It was almost destroyed. They almost destroyed Earth for a second time. There is absolutely no reason we should allow them to infect the rest of the galaxy.” He paused, mostly for dramatic effect. “Not after what they did.”  
“Yeah!” Came Uranus’ not nearly as dramatic but extremely enthusiastic agreement.  
Saturn sighed, “I know. I already agreed that we weren’t gonna let that happen, even if the rest of them wanted to. But we’re not killing them just for exploring! That’s pointless.”  
“Wait a second,” Uranus narrowed his eyes, before he jabbed a finger into Saturn’s chest, “You said you stepped in! You weren’t seen, were you?” He accused.  
Saturn shoved his hand away, “Oh yes, I’m that much of an idiot that actually I did better than that. I waltzed right into their ship and introduced myself, and set up a party for them to meet everyone else. Now, we can all be the best of friends!” He rolled his eyes (or at least he attempted to. It’s actually quite hard to roll your eyes when you have no irises).   
“Saturn this is serious.” Jupiter cut in.  
“Obviously I didn’t!”  
“Awwww,” Uranus pouted, “But if they know that’s a better excuse to throw another asteroid their way.”  
“Why are you like this?” Saturn sighed, before turning to Jupiter, “Did you disable everything on their ship?” Seeing Jupiter’s expression, he knew the answer, “Come on, that’s not even fair. At least give them a fighting chance.”  
“Humans have made it through worse.”  
“Hey…” Uranus narrowed his eyes, “You’re starting to act like the others, Sat.” He muttered, “You’re not gonna start worshipping those murderers are you?”  
“You better not betray her memory like that, Saturn.” Jupiter said, glaring at the other Planet, “Too many of us have. Don’t let them fool you too.”  
“Of course not,” Saturn shot back, crossing his arms. “I’m not an idiot. But I’m not going to agree to pointlessly killing them just for being curious about what’s out there. I don’t care.”  
“If you don’t care, why did you save them??”  
“Because unlike you guys, I still believe they should get a fighting chance.” Saturn spat. “If more of them follow and they actually make a mess of things, do whatever you want. Throw another asteroid, destroy their ship, kill them; I honestly couldn’t care less if I tried.”  
With those words, Saturn disappeared from Jupiter’s home, before he reappeared back on his planet. He stood, and stared at the far away image of Earth, before immediately falling to his knees as he let himself finally respond to something he had realized earlier, but had refused to think about.  
“Shit. He totally saw me.”  
***  
“I’m really fine, Emile, I promise.”  
“Hey, I’m on the job right now and you’re in my office. It’s Doctor to you!” Emile teased, laughing. “And I know, but I wanna make sure. Life and death scenarios aren’t all fun and games and they can leave your head messed up.”  
Thomas smiled at his friend. Emile Picani was both one of the ship’s general doctors and the ship’s main therapist, and the second the alarms had stopped he demanded to see and check up on every single person on the ship, ‘“just in case”. Since there were no actual injuries (thankfully), he mainly just wanted to make sure everyone was emotionally alright.  
So now, Thomas sat in the chair across from his childhood friend with a choice to make. He knew he could talk to him about anything, but he also knew what he wanted to tell him sounded insane, and would probably make the doctor side of Emile start to worry. Which he definitely didn’t want.  
So he decided to see if he could sneak it into the conversation, casually enough that he could play it off as just curiosity or even a joke.  
“Hey, do you believe in angels?”  
Emile frowned, “What did you see?”  
Thomas paused. Well that didn’t work.  
“Nothing,” He lied, “But the way we got out of it seemed so miraculous. I guess my brain was just searching for an explanation.”  
“Thomas, I’ve known you for decades. I can tell when you’re lying.”  
Thomas laughed, “Yeah, I guess you can, huh?” He grew quiet for several moments, before he finally spoke. “I just.. Saw something. It was probably just my eyes playing tricks on me or something, but I thought I saw someone.”   
“What did they look like?”  
“Well, they had a halo or something, that’s why my first thought was an angel,” Thomas admitted, “But they wore a robe or dress or some kind of simple outfit like that, but it looked like space. Like, at first I didn’t even notice it because of how real it looked. And their eyes were completely white.  
“Sounds like a Planet!”  
Both Thomas and Emile jumped when they heard Giovanni’s voice as he appeared behind them, smiling.  
“Gio I told you no more listening to our therapy sessions!!” Emile immediately shouted, putting his hands on his hips and shaking his head disapprovingly. “I told you so many times!!”  
Giovanni pouted, “But I was bored and there’s nothing to dooooo!”   
“What did you mean by the planets?” Thomas asked, knowing if he didn’t interrupt now, then Emile was going to begin a lecture.  
“First, it’s not just planets. It’s the Planets, capital P. And they’re an ancient myth,” Giovanni explained, “That all the planets in our solar system are alive. It’s pretty much an ancient religion, but instead of any gods or any gods being associated with any planets, there’s just the Planets themselves. Earth was who created humanity and every other Earth-based life.” He frowned, “It’s a very old myth though, so not much was recorded or has been discovered. Historians only found documentations and art of it around 50 years ago.”  
“Okay… But why bring them up now?”  
Giovanni shrugged, “Based on the space robe, white eyes, and our current location, that’s what it sounded like.” An image of a very faded figure painted on a clay wall showed up besides Giovanni, and if he squinted Thomas could see how the robe and eyes matched what he described.   
“Plus you mentioned a halo, which could be the rings, the Jovian planets have those. You might have read something on them before when you were younger and hallucinated one in a time of emergency. The human mind is stupid and inferior like that.”  
“Gio, we talked about your AI superiority complex already.”  
“I’m working on it!”  
“I mean, I guess that could’ve been it,” Thomas nodded slowly, “I can’t remember ever reading about them though.”  
“Well like I said, your memory isn’t that good either compared to-”  
“Giovanni Version 3.5!!!”  
“I’m sorry!!!”  
Thomas laughed, before he stood up. “Well, I’m gonna get going. I know you have a whole bunch of people still left to see. Thanks for listening, you two.”  
Emile smiled, “You know you can come and talk whenever you need to! Though I do need some time to teach Gio some manners first-”  
“I am perfectly fi -” Giovanni stopped abruptly, staring off to the side in concentration.  
Emile shot Thomas a knowing look and sighed, “Who are you eavesdropping on now?” he asked reluctantly.  
“Remy,” Giovanni grinned mischievously and winked at Emile, “This is veryyyy interesting, so I’ll be going. See ya!” With a wave, he vanished, leaving Emile to continue yelling at him and Thomas laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings: Cussing, talk of murder


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings at end

Since the beginning of time, the origin of life on Earth had been a huge topic of discussion among every nation on the planet. It was a very important event, to be fair. So all of humanity wondered about it. Each and every one of them had their own theories on what had happened.   
“It was created by our god,” Many swore, arguing with others who said that it was not a god, but actually several of them.  
“I’m telling you, aliens started it!” A few claimed convinced that Earth wasn’t really the beginning of their story at all.  
“It was just evolution. It just started by a very unlikely chance. Simple as that. Nothing spiritual or religious at all,” Was a rather new argument, considering all of Earth’s history, but a popular theory nonetheless.  
Though, in a way, every single one of those ideas are correct. Not in the exact way each of those humans claimed, but instead they became correct when you combine them all as one...  
In theory, almost every Planet in existence had the ability to create life (though not all of them; This is mostly due to the fact that humanity does not have a word for the specific thing that each living Planet was. Sure, they pretended they knew what the concept of a planet was. But really it was much more. There was a big difference between planets and the Planets).  
They are life themselves. If life arises on their home, it did not come from nowhere; Rather, they simply used their own life and and gave it to the new creatures.   
This is why the life that human’s refer to is so rare. In order for it to appear, a Planet has to give their own life force up. In order for those Planets to come into existence, a sun has to give their life to them. And so on and so forth, up to the very universe itself. It is so rare in fact, that Earth is one of the only planets to hold humanity’s definition of life. That is only because one day, billions and billions of years ago, their Mother was kind enough to give up her own life in order for them to thrive and come into existence.  
It caused her death when she gifted them life. And this is why, by some, her children are looked down upon as murderers.

***  
“They’re getting farther away.”  
“Oh?”  
Jupiter grimaced, “They’re nowhere near any others - we don’t have to worry about that for at least a couple of their years - but they’re still far out.” He shook his head, frowning. “We never should have allowed them to leave the solar system boundaries. We should’ve stopped them right there.”  
“Why didn’t we?” Uranus asked curiously, turning away from the ship and looking towards Jupiter, who didn’t reply for several moments. Just as Uranus was just about to speak again, Jupiter swiftly turned around. His expression gave away the reason why not before a single word left his mouth.  
“Saturn. He managed to hide them until they were gone, and by the time we saw they’re were already a long ways off. That’s why we had to do what we did.” Jupiter scoffed, “But of course, it definitely mattered either way. It isn’t like Saturn went and ruined our plan to stop them from spreading their disease. I’m so glad he betrayed us and saved their lives.” His words practically dripped with venom.   
Uranus laughed, “He’s ridiculous! Why does he even care? He knows what monsters they are.” His eyes went wide and he held his hand up to his mouth in a mock gasp, “Is he gonna desert us? Like Neptune?” He asked, though it was difficult to tell if he was joking or actually asking a genuine question.  
“I’m not worried about him disappearing like Neptune or Pluto did. I’m more concerned about him telling them.”  
“Yeah that’s fair.” Uranus grinned suddenly, “and I have a solution!”  
“We are not killing the others.”  
“I no longer have a solution!”   
“Well that’s fine, because I do.” Jupiter smiled, “I don’t care what Saturn wants or whether he tells them or not. We’re going to stop the humans’ journey. However,” Jupiter sighed, “Because I am oh so kind, we will attempt to just…. Stress them out a little first, make them turn around on their own.” He sighed, “As much as I hate to admit it, I’d prefer Saturn didn’t desert us and leave us outnumbered. Two to four aren’t very good odds… So for his sake, we won’t kill them.”  
“Yet?” Uranus asked hopefully,  
Jupiter laughed, “Yet.” He promised, before he turned and began walking off. He looked over his shoulder, and called one last order.  
“You go update Saturn, let him know the plan.” With those words, he disappeared into the stars.

***

Though the two Jovian planets were absolutely convinced Saturn had or was going to leak their plans, it wasn’t true. Saturn had never told a soul. He preferred to deal with things on his own. If he was going to intervene, he would do it himself unless he had no other option.  
That didn’t mean that the other Planets didn’t know of the Jovians’ plan. There had been a leak of information, but it wasn’t on Saturn’s part.  
“Guys!!” Appearing out of seemingly nowhere, the red Planet that was  
Mars shouted, appearing besides the two other Planets in the blink of an eye. Roman’s eyes were wide and he was out of breath, “I have news!! Important news!”  
“Well, go on.” Logan, otherwise known as Mercury, said plainly, “What is it?”  
“You know that exploration ship that just left? Made headlines everywhere down on Earth? That one?”  
“Yeah!” Patton, the Planet Venus, nodded enthusiastically, while Logan figured that that ecstatic confirmation was more than enough for both of them.   
“Well,” Roman narrowed his eyes, “I overheard Uranus earlier, I watched him talk with Saturn. They’re trying to get them to turn back.”  
“I don’t see what exactly the problem with that is. They made history, there’s not much harm in the long run in having them turn and go home. Someone else will pick up where they left off in several years." Logan replied.  
Roman gasped dramatically, “What’s wrong with that?? Well first off, it’s the end of their adventure!!! They want to keep going, who are they to stop their passion??? And secondly,” He paused for even more dramatic effect, “If they don’t turn back, they are prepared to murder them!”   
“Again, someone will pick up where they left off in a few years. It’s not the end of humanity’s ‘adventure’, as you put it.”  
Patton gasped in horror, “I thought they were over killing explorers!!”  
“Evidently not,” Roman frowned, and sighed. He looked like he was about to say more, but Logan beat him to it.  
“All three of them said that?” He asked, “What about Saturn?”  
“Not this again…” Roman mumbled, before throwing his arms up in an exaggerated fashion, “Of course he agreed! He’s one of them!”  
“He did stop their last extinction event.”  
“Oh yes, thank you Saturn soooo much for not turning the Earth into a snowball for the third time. We’re so grateful and you are so kind and merciful and good!!!”  
“Good, I’m glad you see the importance of that as well.”  
“I WAS BEING SARCASTIC AND YOU KNOW IT!”  
“Can we please get back to the problem at hand?” Patton interrupted suddenly, “We can’t just let them kill them. They’re just curious as to what’s out there, and She would be ashamed of us if we let them kill her.”  
The two planets grew quiet at this, and for several moments not a sound was heard. Finally, Logan sighed, rubbing the back of his neck before he spoke.  
“Well, we really only have two options. One, we can encourage them to turn back. They’ve already had a great journey, and even without the Jovians they’re still at risk of general space exploration dangers. Turning back now would give them wonderful stories to tell and the opportunities to make great lives back on their home planet.” Before Roman had the chance to speak, Logan continued. “Or… we can try to guard them, and protect them from their attacks so they can continue their journey.”  
Patton and Roman glanced at each other, before they turned back to Logan and grinned. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, already knowing the answer to his question.   
“I’m guessing you two want to go with option 2…”   
“Yes, option 2 it is!!” Roman shouted, jumping up and down in his excitement. He raised his hand in the air, pointing to the sky in a dramatic pose, “We will be their courageous guardians on this magnificent adventure, while these brave soldiers go and travel onwards into the stars!!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings: Minor talk of murder


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just one minor trigger warning at the end

“GIOVANNI STOP TRYING TO MAKE US FLY INTO STARS!”  
The ship dodged out of the way of yet another star that should have been impossible to overlook, while Giovanni rolled his eyes at the screaming pilot.   
“My scanners did not see that, so it’s not MY fault that that burning rock was so rudely blocking the best way to get to where we’re going.”  
“I swear you’re worse than a GPS…..” Talyn mumbled, handing the controls back over to Joan. They had taken over to get the ship back on course, but after that they’d prefer to just watch than fly. The view was beautiful, after all.  
“You do realize my code was taken from a GPS system and updated, right?”  
“Well that explains it!!”  
“Well, I guess that also explains why you all hate me so much!" Giovanni muttered, folding his arms before his hologram disappeared, as he probably went off to eavesdrop on Emile and then wallow in self pity. Once he left, quiet immediately returned to the room, and a brief sigh of relief could he heard.  
Giovanni gone, Thomas turned to Remy, “So,” He asked, “Where are we onto next?”   
Remy contemplated his response, “Well, we were gonna try to visit here,” He said as he took a sip of his drink. He pointed to a small speck on his digital map, “It’s a star cluster, pretty far - it would probably take another two years until we got there - but…”  
“But what?”  
Remy was silent for several long moments. Thomas shifted nervously, waiting for him to finally reply. A pause that wasn't just due to him taking a long sip of his drink normally wasn't good.  
“Thomas….We’re already five months behind," Remy grew serious, his expression grim and his voice low. This threw Thomas off guard - Remy doing anything that wasn’t laughing, joking around, or roasting people was an uncommon occurrence on its own. Him being so bleak and stern was foreign sight.  
“We’re having a life or death experience almost every day now. There’s no way we’re going to get anywhere like this. I know it’s dangerous to travel like this, but this is insane! This is way more than any of us expected and way more than any of us can handle and you know it.”  
Thomas knew he was right. Since the first almost-collision three months ago, nothing had let up. The next day, another asteroid nearly hit them. Then their electricity cut off. Communications were down. Another asteroid. A quarter of their food went bad. An asteroid DID hit the side of their ship. A gas leak. The ship’s temperature was uncontrollably hot. Much of their water became contaminated. Half their oxygen tanks went missing (they reappeared a day later, and still no one knew where they had gone in that time). It was struggle after struggle after struggle, and it felt like something was out to get them; there was a target painted on the side of their ship, and some unknown factor had a gun.  
And it would be a lie to say Thomas never wondered if that was the case. He still remembered Giovanni’s mention of the Planets, and still remembered the figure he saw. Did that old myth have any truth to it? Was there something - or someone - out there, a Planet, trying to harm them? He wanted to doubt it, but for some reason he could not shake the thought no matter how hard he tried. It was stuck in his mind.   
“So what are you suggesting…?” Thomas asked slowly, already knowing the answer, yet still hoping he was wrong.  
Remy sighed, taking off his sunglasses before he spoke. “Maybe we should head back.” He held up a hand, interrupting Thomas’ immediate objections.   
“Thomas, we’re going to die out here. The only reason we haven’t already is luck, which always runs out. We’ve gone plenty far already. If we continue, I don’t think we’ll make it back.”  
There was silence for several moments; neither of them knew what to say to that.   
But fortunately for both of them, they did not have to figure out an answer. At that moment, Talyn came running into the room, a panicked look plastered on their face.  
“What’s wrong?” Thomas asked immediately, while Remy put his sunglasses back on and turned to face them. Talyn was breathing heavily, though it was hard to tell whether it was from panic or from running the whole way.  
“Somethings wrong with Joan, they won’t wake up.”  
***  
“A personal attack?! Really?!”   
“We didn’t kill any of them, Saturn. I thought that was what you wanted.”   
“Putting their pilot in a coma is not any better! That’s going to kill all of them, they need them!” Saturn’s face darkened, “I thought we agreed not to play dirty! We agreed we weren’t going to cause their deaths! Not yet!”  
“They have another pilot, they’ll be fine!!” Uranus laughed, “I’m sure whoever it is is plenty capable of getting them back home to Earth.”  
“Then what?” Saturn demanded, stepping closer to Jupiter and jabbing a finger into his chest accusingly, “You put their pilot in a coma and we both know you sure as hell aren’t going to be healing them. None of the humans' technology is anywhere near good enough to undo what any of us could do. They can’t help them! Their life is over! You've essentially killed them! You lied!”   
Jupiter shoved his hand away, “I said I would not kill any of them, and I did not. The human is alive, just unconscious.” He smiled, “I never lied.”  
Saturn glared at him for several moments, staring back and forth between him and Uranus. They’re proud of their loophole, he realized. This is useless. Arguing with them would do nothing. The pilot’s life was over, there was nothing he could do. Neither Uranus and Jupiter were going to undo that, ever. And he couldn’t either, not with how proud they were. Who knew what they would do if he even tried to heal the pilot? Kick him out? Ruin his life? Whatever they would do, it would be nothing good; that was for sure.  
Realization struck him before all hope was lost, however. There was a chance that the pilot could be saved. A small chance, but a chance nonetheless. He stopped frowning, and his face resumed its blank and unrevealing state. Without another word to his companions, he turned and disappeared into the void.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk of a character in a coma


	6. Chapter 6

Emile shut the door behind him, looking at the three faces staring back at him. Thomas, Talyn, and Remy all watched him anxiously, Thomas rising from his seat the second the man entered the room.  
“What’s wrong with them?” Thomas asked immediately, fear etched into his features. The silence coming from the usually eccentric doctor only made his worry grow.  
Emile bit his lip, “Honestly…” He paused, emotions flooding his face as he desperately searched for the right words to say. Finding none, he only sighed in defeat. “I don’t know. They just dropped into a coma, there were no signs. It happened out of nowhere - I had Giovanni check the cameras and Joan was completely fine beforehand. I even double checked their medical file beforehand - There’s absolutely no reason for this to have happened.”  
“Can you fix it?” Talyn demanded, standing up as well. “You’re a doctor, fix them!”  
“I tried!” Emile said, “I can’t. Nothing will wake them up. This isn’t normal, I can tell. This didn’t happen because of a problem in their body or brain or anything at all. I don’t know what’s wrong, and I can’t wake them up.” He stopped, and let out another deep sigh, “Every test I have run has shown that absolutely nothing is wrong with them. They’re just… unconscious.”  
Silence swept over the room. No one knew what to say. Emile took the stillness as an opportunity to return to the room where Joan was. He didn’t say a word as he left, and Talyn followed him out. With Emile and Talyn gone, Remy turned to face Thomas.  
“I told you,” Remy said softly, “These are signs. I don’t normally believe in anything superstitious but Thomas… Maybe we shouldn’t be out this far, maybe we’re supposed to remain back home. We shouldn’t be here.”  
Without another word, Remy left the room.  
And Thomas was alone.  
***  
Days past. More people began to silently agree with Remy - Talyn… Emile…. several other crew members... - But no one wanted to be the person who wanted to give up on such a great journey. No one wanted to have to tell anyone back on Earth that they wimped out and wanted to turn back; they were all too prideful for that. But… even Thomas had started having second thoughts on whether it was wise to keep going.   
Still, they pressed on.  
A week passed, and Joan’s condition did not get any better. Emile had initially wanted to wait a few days, and see if anything changed.   
When nothing did, he called a meeting.  
“We might be able to do more for them back on Earth,” He announced to the room, “But it will be years until we’re back, after our journey. So we need to decide on what we want to do. We have two options…” He looked around at everyone, taking a short pause before he continued.  
“Option 1, we can put them into cryosleep. Then their body won’t have to wait so long to be cured. We can keep going, then go back to Earth and take them to a proper doctor when we return. Which will be at least half a decade, or even longer. Or…” Emile looked directly at Thomas, “We can turn around now. Get Joan the help they need immediately. It’s only a years journey if we turn back now.”  
There weren’t actually two options, and Thomas knew it. As much as he wanted to keep going, this was an entirely different situation. They had already waited a week. They needed to fix this immediately, and compared to Joan this journey didn’t matter. His friends came first. His family came first. Joan came first.   
“Then we’ll turn around.” Thomas began to say, looking around at everyone as he spoke. He saw Remy give the slightest nod of approval, a barely visible movement unless you were looking. “We’re getting Joan help now.”  
Emile smiled, “Good-” His words were cut off suddenly, with no warning. His eyes shut and Thomas watched in shock at the scene unfolding before him.  
One by one, each of his friends fell to the ground. Emile first, followed by Remy, then Talyn, then everyone else in the room. Thomas even saw Giovanni disappear - and it wasn’t just the visual of him that left; he saw him close his eyes before he disappeared, indicating he was in his own version of ‘sleep’. He had shut down too.  
He looked around the room, eyes wide. Every person was unconscious. He was the only one awake. He had no idea what had happened, and he felt himself start to panic. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), his panic was interrupted, and a voice could be heard behind him.  
“No, you won’t turn back.”   
The sound came from behind Thomas, but not from any voice he’d ever heard. The words were gentle and soothing, yet he could tell they held great power. He had no idea who it was, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know…. Thomas's movements were cautious and slow as he turned to face the unknown voice.  
Standing in front of him was… someone. If you only glanced at them for a moment, the being could definitely pass as a human, but not for long. His skin was a smooth pale orange, but covered in soft lines and bumps and blurred as though it was covered in clouds. His short yet curly hair was the same texture, but darker in color. A robe covered him, falling past one shoulder, but the fabric looked as though it was crafted from the universe itself, flowing gracefully down to his ankles. But what stood out most was his eyes; they were pure white, almost glowing. But they were kind. A gentle smile was present on his lips, and he looked met Thomas' eyes.  
“Is that them?” Before Thomas could reply, the being rushed past him, walking over to where Joan was laying. He frowned, standing over the unconscious pilot. “I can’t believe they did this… They really did find even lower levels to stoop to, huh?” He shook his head disapprovingly, and Thomas wasn’t sure whether he was talking to him or if he was just talking to himself.  
Summoning all of the courage he had, he managed to whisper what his mind had been screaming since the being’s first words were heard. “Who are you?”  
He looked up from Joan, and immediately laughed, “Oh, sorry!” He exclaimed, giggling now, “I probably should’a introduced myself, huh?” He held out a hand, smiling.  
“I’m Venus, but you can call me Patton. Nice to meet ya!”   
Instead of taking the offered hand, Thomas stared at him incredulously, “You’re who?”  
“Venus, the Planet.” He repeated, “I know you heard of us, I checked with your AI first. Not specifically of me, but all us Planets so...” Patton looked thoughtful, “But anyways I need to hurry with this, I’m not technically supposed to be talking to you.”  
“That… that explained nothing!” Thomas blurted. He gestured towards Joan, “Was that you?! Did you do that!”  
“Heavens no!!” Patton exclaimed, his eyes wide with worry, “Not me! I came to heal them, because I know who did it.” He scowled, his face an impossible mix of disappointment, anger, and sadness. “I know you guys don’t have the ability to fix what one of us did! But don’t worry, the pilot will be fine!”   
Thomas was about to speak again, but instead opted to remain quiet when he saw what Venus or Patton or whoever or whatever this being was had started doing.  
Patton slowly set his hand on top of Joan’s forehead, and shut his own eyes. By the way the Planet was acted, Thomas almost expected them both to start glowing and Joan to wake up with magical powers or something like some strange fantasy cliche.  
Thankfully (or maybe it was sadly), Thomas did not have to deal with magical anime girl Joan. Patton simply removed his hand after several moments, nothing insane seeming to have happened.. He turned to Thomas, “They’ll wake up tonight and they’ll be fine. Everyone else will wake up in about an hour; they won’t remember any of this.” His expression then turned to one of worry, and he nervously began to ramble,  
“I have to leave now, I’m reallllyyyyy not supposed to be here at all or let you see me. Logan’s gonna be sooo mad, seriously, and you don’t wanna deal with mad Logan!! But at least your pilot - uh, I still don’t know their name, but they’re going to be okay!”  
“Were you the one who saved us before?” Thomas demanded, not even bothering to try to decipher Patton’s rambling here. He was desperate. He could tell he only had a few moments left before the Planet disappeared, and he needed answers. He had millions of questions now, and this could be the only chance he ever got to ask any of them. Maybe he could at least get a couple of words in before it was too late.   
Patton shook his head, “No, this is the first time. But don’t worry, I’m still gonna be here! They’ll probably try something again, but we’re gonna be here to stop them.” He took a step back, smiling at Thomas. “Now, continue your journey, okay? Goodbye!!”  
Thomas’ eyes widened in disbelief as, instead of actually leaving, Patton seemed to just fade away into nothing, eyes still glowing ever so brightly. He disappeared without a trace, as though he had never been there in the first place. The only proof that Thomas wasn’t just dreaming was the fact that his friends were all still unconscious, put to sleep by the Planet. Thomas wasn’t dreaming, and he wasn’t asleep.  
It wasn’t that way for long, however. He quickly fainted.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No trigger warnings for this chapter needed as far as I can tell

Informing Logan of what happened went about as well as Patton could expect.  
“You did what??!!”  
Patton nervously rubbed the back of his neck, “I let one of the humans see me?”  
“I heard you!” Logan exclaimed, pacing back and forth now across the scorching surface of Venus’ land, “That was a rhetorical question! Why?! You know we can’t do that! They can’t find out the truth, don’t you realize what could happen? Do you have any idea what damage you’ve caused!”  
“Well… yes but -”  
“But nothing! There was no reason to do that! If anything, that gives us more of a reason to try to send them back home!” His words sped up; it didn’t even look like he was talking to Patton at this point, he just began babbling to himself. “Maybe we should just encourage them to leave now. Yes, the Jovians may resort to violent measures, but maybe they weren’t that wrong, especially if they know we exist. They can’t stay! They’ll search! Humans are curious like that! Or worse, who knows what could happen, I don’t -”  
“Logan -”  
“This isn’t even just bad for us, actually! Whoever saw you - Their life is ruined! If they tell someone, they will become a joke and called crazy. If they tell no one, they will feel crazy! You’ve ruined -”  
“I saved one of their lives!”  
Logan stopped at this. Patton was staring at him with wide eyes, looking unsure and scared of what he was going to tell him, yet somehow still confident in the truth behind his words. He sighed, and continued, “Saturn came to me…” He said slowly, quietly, cautiously… “He told me that Jupiter and Uranus put their pilot into a coma. They went too far and he knew it, but he couldn’t undo that or they’d...Well, I don’t know what they’d do, and neither did he. But we both knew he couldn’t undo that, not himself.”  
“I thought they agreed on letting them live?” Logan said, though it sounded more like a question.  
“They did, that was their reasoning.” Patton explained, “They put them in a coma, they didn’t kill anyone. But the humans don’t have the technology to heal anyone of that, not with something as powerful as Jupiter or Uranus being the cause. They knew it too! That poor pilot would have lost their entire life. Just like that,” He snapped his fingers.  
Logan was quiet for a moment, as Patton knew he sometimes got when he was deep in thought. He let several moments pass before he spoke again, “Only one person saw. Just the captain or leader or something like that of the ship, Thomas Sanders.”  
“Why him?”  
“I’m honestly not sure…” Patton said softly, frowning, “I just… They were about to give up on the pilot for the trip, and then turn around to get them help back on Earth. Someone needed to know they would be okay so they wouldn’t turn around.” Patton smiled timidly, “And he… he reminded me of Earth, just a little. So I went with my gut and let him see…“  
Logan sighed, but not out of the same enraged frustration as before. His tone was much gentler this time.  
“So you didn’t have to show anyone, did you?”  
“I guess not…”  
“Well…” Logan paused, hesitantly speaking his next words. “Next time let me know first, okay? I could’ve helped you come up with a safer course of action. And…” More hesitation, “You really didn’t need to do that alone.”  
Patton smiled, sprinted over and hugged his friend tightly. Logan loosely hugged back, still unsure of this even after billion of years of his friend’s clinginess to others.  
“Thank you Logan.”  
Logan nodded briskly, before he cleared his throat. As if on cue, Patton let go and looked up at him.  
“So, you said Saturn informed you of this?”  
Patton nodded, “Yeah, he came by earlier. Though…” He smiled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck, “I don’t think he wanted me to tell anyone though?”  
“Well, you’ve told two people now!”  
Logan and Patton turned around, and saw Roman appearing, a grin on his face. Logan scowled, “Mars!” he exclaimed, “How long have you been there?”  
“Long enough,” Roman shrugged, “But you two were having such a serious and sweet conversation, so I figured it would be considered rude to interrupt. So like the kind and generous friend I am, I waited and gave you guys time to finish!”  
“Falsehood. You just wanted to eavesdrop.”  
“Pshh,” Roman swatted the imaginary conversation away with his hand and changed the subject. He turned to Patton, eyes sparkling with excitement, “So did I hear that right?? They know about us now??!”  
“Well, one of them knows about me - “  
“Great!” Roman cheered, “That means we can talk to them now!!”  
“It does not!” Logan interjected, staring at Roman as though he were insane (though, at times like this it seemed he actually was). “You will not go see them!”  
Roman narrowed his eyes and folded his arms across his chest, “And why not? If one knows, the whole ship will anyways. It’s pointless to try to hide, so I see absolutely no reason not to create an amazing opportunity out of a bad situation!”  
“If by turning a bad situation into an amazing opportunity you actually mean making the situation ten times worse, then I agree with you,” Logan spat, “We cannot and will not speak to them. One human saw Patton one time, that is as bad as it will get!”  
“We haven’t spoken to a human in two thousand years!” Roman argued, “Come on, they’re great! I miss them! It went fine last time!”  
“Uh…” Patton said slowly, “Didn’t ‘last time’ end in them thinking you were a god?”  
“And what’s wrong with a few temples?” Roman mumbled, stubbornly avoiding eye contact. Logan facepalmed.  
“Okay, this conversation is over.” He announced, beginning to walk off. He turned to look at Roman one last time, “You will not speak to any humans, do you understand?”  
“Yes Mom.” Roman mocked, rolling his eyes. Apparently satisfied with that response, Logan disappeared, leaving Roman and Patton alone.  
There was silence for a few seconds.  
“You weren’t actually agreeing to that, right?” Patton asked after several moments, a glimmer of hope hidden in his words.  
Roman grinned, “Course not!” He laughed, “We both shall visit them… tomorrow!!!”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two trigger warnings on end notes

Blinding white light; that was all Thomas could see. He squinted, holding his arm up above his head in a failed attempt to hide the piercing white glow. It did very little to help. He blinked, but it didn’t go away. Was he dead? Was this what they meant by “going into the light”? Oh shit, he can't die yet, can he??  
“Hey, look who’s awake,” Thomas blinked again, and the light that was above him slowly came into focus, as did the kind face that had appeared before him. Emile smiled, and Thomas immediately felt the tension disappear from his shoulders upon recognizing his friend. He was just in the ship’s medical room; the bright white was only the room’s light.   
“How are you feeling, Thomas?” Emile asked, as his friend pushed himself into a sitting position. Thomas looked around for a moment, his mind becoming clearer as he felt more awake with each passing second. He put a hand to his forehead, frowning.  
“Dizzy, and my head is pounding…” He mumbled, “What happened?”  
“I’m not entirely sure,” Emile admitted slowly, “Apparently all of us fell unconscious at the same time, and we all woke up around the same time too. Everyone, even Giovanni! Except you - you’ve been asleep for almost a full day now, Thomas.”  
“What?” Thomas asked, confusion etched into his features, “Why? How could -” He stopped talking, memories of what had just occured flooding into his mind. Memories of Joan, memories of his friends falling to the floor, memories of… him appearing. His eyes went wide, and he sat up straighter, a single question on his mind. “What about Joan?”  
“They just woke up too!” Emile said happily, smiling, “They’re completely fine too, though they were pretty confused…” He trailed off, pushing his glasses up his nose before continuing. “But oddly enough, they still said they felt better than ever before, like they were a little kid again. There’s… absolutely nothing wrong with them. They seem even better and healthier than when we first started the journey. I checked, they’re one of the healthiest people I’ve ever seen now, it is almost as if they were even cured of what comes with aging. That coma or whatever in this universe it was somehow…. Healed them Thomas, down to their very DNA.”  
“How…” Thomas looked down, amazed. If that was true then… what he saw, was it all real? Did it really happen? Did the Planet Venus really help his friend? It wasn’t just some crazy dream? The Planets… they’re real?   
“Yeah! This really was a miracle!” Emile laughed, oblivious to Thomas' inner turmoil, “I have no clue how that happened, or even what happened at all! But it did!”  
“Are they awake??” Thomas sprung out of bed, only to be stopped by a hand on his chest. Emile looked at him sternly.  
“No, they’re asleep. Resting. Just like you should be.”  
“What? Emile, I’m fine -” Thomas protested, but Emile just shook his head.   
“You were unconscious way longer than all of us, and there's a huge bump on your head! You actually got injured, you are resting!” He grinned, “Doctor’s orders!”  
Thomas sighed; he knew he wasn’t going to win this. There was no way. “Alright alright,” He said as he laid back down, smiling reassuringly. “I’ll rest.”  
“Promise?”  
“Promise,” Thomas agreed, nodding. Satisfied, Emile said goodbye one last time and exited the room. Thomas’s eyes followed him, and he could see Remy waiting outside as the door open. He waved, before the door shut and the two disappeared. Now alone, Thomas sighed, rolling over and staring at the wall, getting lost in his thoughts.  
Well, “thoughts” is a nice way of putting it. More accurately, he got lost in his newest existential crisis.  
***  
The ship flew by, speeding past the dust and stars with no problems at all. Inside it contained humanity, the only members of the species outside of their Solar System. They were explorers, they were adventurers… they were courage, and they were bravery.  
And so help him, Roman was going to meet them.  
He and Patton sat on a lone and quiet star at quite a distance from the ship; so far in fact, that it didn’t look very fast at all. It cruised along gently across the horizon, the light gray standing out in stark contrast from the black void behind it. Both of the Planets’ eyes trailed it, before Roman smiled and stood up, breaking eye contact. Patton looked up at him in question.  
“It is time! Now, we shall go meet them!” He announced proudly, his eyes glimmering with excitement. “Or rather, they’ll meet us. Can you imagine how excited they’ll be to meet us??? Oh Patton, they’re going to be thrilled!”  
“Well, yes… But they might be a little scared too, Roman.” Patton pointed out, getting to his knees and then standing as well. Looking up at Roman, he frowned. “We look a lot different from them, like the gods or monsters they thought up in ancient times, or angels or something… The captain looked kind of terrified….”  
“Should we disguise ourselves as humans then?” Roman asked, not losing even a trace of his excitement. He grinned as his eye’s turned to ones like those of the human’s, though his now green irises still shone abnormally bright. Before his hair finished changing to a textureless dark brown, Patton shook his head.  
“There’s no point Roman, that’ll honestly probably freak them out even more, seeing some random human stranger on their ship.”  
Roman groaned, changing back to normal as the green disappeared from his eyes. “Ughhhh come on, I haven’t gotten to act as a human for centuries! This sucks.”  
“At least we’re meeting them.” Patton smiled, putting a hand on his shoulder, “Come on! Be grateful we’re getting this!”  
“Yeah yeah,” Roman sighed, trying to hide his playful smile and look upset. “Logan is gonna kill us when we get back either way, so we might as well enjoy this while we can!”  
“Exactly.” Patton nodded, and turned back to look at the ship. Surprisingly enough, it had managed to get quite a distance away in the short time that their conversation took. Maybe that tiny ship was a little faster than either of them had thought. He turned back to Roman, holding out his hand.   
“Let’s go meet this generation of humanity.”  
Roman grinned, taking and shaking Patton’s hand solemnly. “Let’s do it.”  
Together, the two flew off into the void, ready to meet everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings:  
* Cussing  
* They're in a doctor's office


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's an extra long chapter to make up for no update last week 😂😂 sorry about that guys.  
Anyways, there's one trigger warning, see end notes.

“What the hell???” Saturn stared at Mercury as though he were insane, “You just let them leave???”

“Of course not,” Mercury objected, folding his arms, “I told them not to go anywhere, and when I couldn’t find them I merely asked you if you’ve seen them. I did not just ‘let them leave’. They did not ask me for permission.”

“If they’re not with you then we both know where they went!” Saturn exclaimed, holding his forehead with one hand, “They went to see the humans!”

The second Mercury had come to Saturn to ask him that question, Saturn knew something was wrong. If Mars and Venus were missing, they were likely off causing trouble. Given recent events, “trouble” this time involved Thomas and his ship. Saturn clenched his jaw, already beginning to panic. This was not good. However, his mind still quickly wove together a decent plan, even with his panic. Without a word, he grabbed Mercury’s wrist as he began to walk off.

“Where are we going?” Mercury demanded, staring at Saturn in confusion, but going with him nonetheless.

“To stop them from being idiots.”

***

“THOMAS GET UP!” 

Thomas bolted up in bed at the noise, adrenaline kicking in. Giovanni had appeared in front of him suddenly, impatiently waiting for Thomas to get over the shock of peacefully sleeping and being woken up by a loud shout coming from speakers in all directions. He didn't really care if that was considered "rude".

“Giovanni??” Thomas stared at him in confusion, using one arm to balance himself. He had gotten up too quickly and felt dizzy, “What’s going on?”

“Two things!!” Giovanni announced, pointing to a nearby window, “Firstly, look at that view it’s amazing and I love it!” Thomas glared at him, and Giovanni quickly continued, “Secondly, uhhhh all of the cameras cut off in the kitchen, and no one can get into the room. The doors have been sealed too.”

“What?” Thomas looked confused, standing up carefully, “Someone locked themselves in there? Can’t you get in?”

“I told you, the cameras are down,” Giovanni explained, “And so are the microphones. I mean I could technically go in there, but I wouldn’t be able to see or hear anything. They could still see me though," He frowned, “But everyone in the ship is accounted for. We have no idea who is in there.”

Thomas nodded slowly, “Okay… Go get Remy, tell him to meet me by the doors of the kitchen. We’ll figure it out.” Giovanni made a quiet noise of agreement and disappeared. Thomas took a moment to sigh and rub his forehead, a sudden headache forming. This was going to be a long day.

Ten minutes later, he was walking down the hall to see what was going on. He looked up to see Remy was already there, grinning and nodding a greeting when he arrived.

“Hey Thomas, what's going on?” He asked, sipping his coffee. Thomas shrugged, still feeling rather awful and tired. 

“I’m not sure,” Thomas admitted, “But -”

“No one can get into the kitchen, the doors are locked and no cameras are working inside.” Giovanni interrupted, appearing suddenly behind them. Remy and Thomas turned abruptly, and Giovanni shrugged, “I’m curious what’s going on, so I’m here too.”

“Alright well, how are we supposed to open the doors?” Remy asked, “They’re electrically locked.”

“There should be an emergency latch…” Thomas mummered, mostly to himself, and turned to Giovanni, “Can you disable the alarms for a minute? I don’t want everyone panicking just because we couldn’t get this stupid door open.”

Giovanni gave him a thumbs up, and Thomas nodded a thanks before he leaned down to a panel at the foot of the door. He fished a key from his pocket, and moments later, the door cracked open ever so slightly. 

“I’ll be here, but the second the cameras are back on I’m in there too.” Giovanni announced. Without another word, Remy and Thomas entered the room in silence.

Well it was silent, until Remy screamed. 

Thomas, on the other hand, stood there in shock. Though he now knew of the Planet’s existence, he did not think he would show up in his kitchen.

And he definitely did not expect him to bring a friend.

“Greetings, humans!” The one that he didn't recognize announced, “It is I, your god Mars!!”

“Roman I don’t think -”

“SHHHHHHHHH”

Remy and Thomas exchanged glances, neither having any idea of how they were supposed to deal with this situation. 

“Soooo….” Patton - if Thomas remembered his name right - smiled gently, “This is Mars, he wanted to come meet you too…”

“Yes! I am the Planet Mars, also known as the Great Prince Roman!”

“Prince….?” Thomas finally asked, speaking quietly.

Patton waved that off, silently signalling that it wasn’t going to make sense. Roman continued grinning, staring around the room happily. Thomas was still confused, of course, but had a slight idea of what was going on. Remy, however….

“What the fuck is going on?!?!?!!??!” Remy suddenly screamed, taking off his sunglasses and staring at the two beings in complete shock, his dark eyes wide “What are you?!?!? Why are you here??!!”

Roman’s smile dropped, obviously disappointed that Remy’s reaction was not full of wonder and awe. Patton on the other hand, just frowned.

“Uh sorry about that - we’re the Planets Venus and Ma-”

“Don’t give me any of that bullshit, who are you really?!” Remy demanded, furious now. Thomas noticed that somewhere along the way Remy had lost his starbucks or put it down somewhere too, which probably also was not going to help this situation. Remy without coffee was not something you wanted to deal with. He continued ranting, still staring at the Planets in front of him with wide eyes. “What kind of costumes are those, who are you, and how did you get on our ship?? What kind of prank is this?”

“Costumes?” Both Patton and Roman asked in unison, though Roman paired his words with a dramatic hand to his chest and a greatly offended gasp.

Remy scoffed, “Yeah, duh. You’re not fooling anyone.” He crossed his arms, and ignored Thomas to keep talking. He pointed towards the back of the ship, over all of their heads, “And neither are your friends.” He looked towards the back now, "And sweetie that halo isn't fooling anyone, I can tell it's plastic from here."

Everyone immediately spun around to see that two more Planets had, indeed, shown up. One was a light gray with an ever so slightly blue tint, while his hair was the same but speckled with gold. He stood somewhat taller than the first two Planets, and his lips were tightly knitted in a deep frown. Even then, his scowl was nothing compared to that of the being behind him. 

This other Planet stood back in the shadows; this didn’t do much though, his white eyes seemed to glow on their own and easily let others see him. He clearly did not want to be there; his face scrunched in contempt. He seemed to be the only one there whose hair was different from his skin. His hair matched his purple and black robe, which looked like it was sewn together from the strands of the universe itself. When he noticed what looked like a halo on his head, Thomas gasped.

“You!” He suddenly shouted, pointing at him, “You were the one I saw!! When the asteroid was about to hit!”

The Planet opened his mouth to respond, but Roman beat him to it.

“So it was you!” He shouted, his own face growing dark, “I knew it! I knew it, I knew it!”

“Knew what?!” The other Planet demanded.

“You lied, you have been helping them!” Roman’s face twisted in disgust with the word, and he walked towards him. He pointed a finger at him accusingly, “You tried to kill these innocent explorers! You sent an asteroid towards them!”

The purple Planet hissed in response (for some reason), and Thomas finally worked up the courage to speak. 

“No! I meant - I meant he was the one who saved us.”

“What?” Roman looked completely lost at this. “No way!”

“It was, he has the halo!”

“It’s not a halo?? Do I LOOK like an angel to you??"

The other newcomer cleared his throat, interrupting their argument. He began to speak for the first time since he had gotten there.

“I think it’s time we all leave, this little misadventure is finished.” He shot a glare towards Roman and Patton, and both looked a bit nervous. “We’re done here.”

“Aw Lo, we just got here…”

“Why did you bring him?!” 

“I brought him, moron, not the other way around.”

“Oh you wanna call me a moron?”

“He’s not entirely wrong -”

“STOP YOUR BICKERING AND EXPLAIN WHAT IS GOING ON!” All four heads shot towards Remy, who stared back. “None of you are leaving until you explain exactly what is happening here!” 

Thomas guessed he finally started to realize this wasn't a prank.

“None of us are leaving?” The Planet with the not-halo scoffed, “Yeah well, good luck enforcing that one.” With those words, he vanished. The other new Planet sighed, and turned to both Thomas and Remy.

“Well, I suppose the damage has been done,” He said slowly, and took a deep breath. “I am Mercury, and we are the Planets. Nice to meet you, I suppose.”

“Mercury?” Remy demanded, “Aren’t the Planets being alive some old myth??”

“Nope, we are far too great to be a myth my dear friend!” Roman grinned, “But you should be pleased to know that you are speaking to legends!” He spun around dramatically and bowed, “The Planet Mars, at your service!”

“Roman, you already introduced yourself.” Patton whispered loudly. 

“I know, but it led to them screaming so I needed to redo it!” Roman whispered back even louder. Mercury pointedly ignored them.

“I apologize for them. We were not supposed to meet you, they just got overexcited and impulsive and came despite my warnings.”

“Why are you apologizing?” Remy exclaimed, “Holy crap, according to the legends you guys are basically gods. Woah this is amazing - hey!! Wait a minute!” He turned to Thomas, “You knew the other one!! You mean you saw them and never told me?? I thought we were friends dude!”

“It was a while ago, when that asteroid got split in half…” Thomas said, “I wasn’t sure it was real… But uh, Patton did show up a few days ago… He healed Joan.”

“Wait did he knocked you out?”

“No!!” Patton shouted, pouting, “He was the only one I didn’t knock out, actually…”

"Girl, that was so not cool."

No one responded after that, silence flooding the room. Thomas looked back and forth between every person in the room (Admitedly, he wasn’t really sure whether they qualified as “people”, but oh well). He never would have imagined in a million years that leaving the solar system would lead to this, lead to meeting mythical beings hardly anyone knew existed. Sure, he had hoped to make some new discoveries, but this?

“Wait, why did we only meet you guys after we left our solar system?” Thomas suddenly asked, “You guys live there too, right?”

“Well, yes,” Roman admitted, “We’re out of our neighborhood currently. But we didn’t have any reasons to interact with you guys before.”

“And you do now?” Remy cut in.

“Absolutely!” Roman nodded, grinning, “We’re your protectors from the evil ones trying to destroy you, and end your adventure much too soon! You must continue on your journey into the stars, exploring the outer reaches of the universe and discovering what lies behind the void!” Roman smiled, "You shall become legends yourselves, known to all of mankind for the rest of eternity."

Temporarily distracted by that beautiful imagery, Thomas smiled. Until realization struck him.

“Wait, evil ones trying to destroy us?!”

Patton and Mercury exchanged looks, and Roman slammed a hand over his mouth. 

“Oops.”

“Well… Patton spoke slowly, eyes darting back and forth as though searching for an explanation, “You see… We’re not the only Planets.”

“Yeah, we just met four of you, there should be another four right?” Remy asked, “Is it something with them?”

“There were five,” Roman said, “What, you thought your human science decided Pluto’s fate? Nah, you guys originally had nine because of us. Just because it was all of us who were alive.” 

“That’s besides the point Mars,” Mercury sighed, “but some of the Planets aren’t happy with you humans. They think it was a terrible idea to allow you to leave the solar system, and they’re currently trying to get you to turn around.”

“That’s why all these insane things have been happening?” Remy asked. His sunglasses had finally returned to his eyes. “They’re trying to sabotage our mission?”

“Which Planets are they?” Thomas asked.

“Jupiter and Uranus.” Mercury said.

“And Saturn,” Roman mumbled, crossing his arms, “He’s with them.”

“The one who just left?” Thomas asked, suddenly feeling stupid. Obviously that was Saturn. It wasn’t a halo; that was his rings. 

“Saturn is with them, but he’s probably the only reason they haven’t killed you guys yet,” Patton explained, “Roman, don’t be mean!”

Roman stubbornly mumbled an apology, but it was obvious there was no sincerity in it. Patton still seemed satisified with it, and smiled. 

"We do need to be going though,” Mercury said after a few moments, and quickly continued before Patton or Roman could object, “But… I suppose since they already know, there’s no harm in coming back. But I do think we should give them a bit of time to process this.” He turned to Thomas and Remy, “I do apolgize for throwing all of this onto you, your minds must be overwhelmed.”

Well, that was an understatement.

“Ha!” Roman grinned, “Well, I suppose meeting me can be overwhelming. I understand.” He ignored Mercury’s glare and put one hand on his shoulder, the other going to Patton’s. “We will be seeing you!” He announced to the room, "Goodbye uh....." Thomas caught him reading their uniforms, "Sanders and Leon!"

The three of them then faded away, disappearing from the ship completely. The second they were gone, Giovanni’s holographic form replaced them.

“So, anyone wanna explain what off of Earth that was?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cussing, more than the last chapters tho.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No trigger warnings.  
Also, this update might only appear on AO3 for a bit. I'm currently grounded from my phone and Tumblr is blocked on my school computer, but I'm gonna try and get the update up on Tumblr tonight too.

“Holy crap, this is insane!” Remy laughed, “Am I going insane? Girl, please tell me you saw all that too and I’m not going crazy. I’m not ready to be the hot psychopathic one just yet. Give me at least another decade first.”  
“No, the cameras and everything came back on while they were here,” Giovanni said, “I just watched from them… You’re lucky I’m so chill, any other AI totally would’ve recorded that and sent it to the government by now or something, you guys should be THANKFUL for me! For real.”  
“Yeah yeah Gio we know…” Thomas rubbed his forehead, squeezing his eyes shut to combat a newly formed headache. “That was just a lot, give me a minute…”  
“You’re telling me? Thomas, this changes everything! This is why every day on this stupid ship has been a living hell, this… god, we basically just met gods. Oh my god Thomas this is unbelievable.”  
“Yeah, and now I have to figure out what we do next,” Thomas looked between his two friends, the mood instantly changing. “Guys, this isn’t a warship! I can’t put everyone in danger like this, we can’t keep going on!! Jupiter and Uranus and possibly Saturn are quite literally trying to kill us, we can’t fight that! We're supposed to just be exploring, not fighting the closest equivalent we have to gods!”  
“Wait,” Giovanni’s smile disappeared, “You want to turn back now? After… This?”  
“I can’t keep all of my friends in danger like this, Giovanni.”  
“Woah woah woah, hold up there girlfriend.” Remy interrupted, “You can’t expect us to turn back now, after that?? Thomas, we have three or four magical Planets guarding us, we just made the greatest discovery known to man in the history of forever, and you want us to leave!?! No way!”  
“Weren’t you the one who was just trying to convince me that we need to go back to Earth??”  
“Joan is fine now! No reason to turn back anymore!”  
Thomas froze, “Joan… How am I supposed to tell them about all of this??” He didn’t think about that. “There’s no way I can tell them… Guys, no one in their right mind will believe us if we tell them about this.”   
“Giovanni, did you record it?” Remy suddenly asked.  
The AI paused, and then shook his head, “Well, I technically did, but wherever they show up is all blurry. I could hear them, but I couldn’t actually make out their faces. And…” He stopped, looking confused, “Actually, that whole file has been erased. It’s gone.”  
Thomas groaned, “Well that takes out that option…”  
“We can’t tell anyone. No one can know or they’ll think we’re insane.” Remy hesitantly spoke, “We’re gonna have to keep this between the three of us.”  
Thomas sighed. Truthfully, he had known that that was going to have to happen already, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. He had already had to hide seeing first Saturn and then Venus from everyone and it was a nightmare! He shared everything with his close friends, especially Joan. He hated lying to them. But Remy was right… He supposed keeping this from the majority of his crew would be easy… with the exception of Joan. They could read him like an open book and would instantly be able to tell something was wrong.  
And Thomas wasn’t ever going to be able to tell them the truth.   
“Alright, everyone, let’s make an agreement.” Thomas said, even if he was reluctant to agree to this himself, “We will keep this a secret. We will not tell anyone under any circumstances ever, okay?” He sighed, "At least, not now… maybe if something changes in the future we can tell someone but… as of now, we tell no one, okay?"  
Giovanni and Remy both nodded, agreeing instantly.  
***  
Two days later, Thomas stared at the three individuals in front of him in shock.  
“You BOTH told Emile?!??!” Thomas demanded.  
“He asked what was wrong!!!”  
“You want me to lie to HIM?!?”  
“We can’t lie to him!!!! Thomas are you crazy?!?”  
Thomas facepalmed, and Emile laughed from his spot besides Remy.   
“So… The Planets are real?” He asked, smiling nervously, “I won’t lie, I did wonder if maybe there was a gas leak of some sort at first, but Giovanni wouldn’t have been affected then.”  
Thomas smiled meekly, knowing that if for some reason Emile was messing with them, he was about to look like a complete fool. “Yeah… They are, somehow.”  
Emile’s serious demeanor immediately dropped, and he lit up, “Really??? This is amazing!!!” He exclaimed, “Can I meet them?! Oh my this is amazing!! I love the Planets!”  
Remy looked confused, “Wait, you’ve heard of them?”  
Emile giggled, “Of course! My grandmother was the one who first discovered traces of the myths! She was an archeologist! I grew up with stories of them, guys.”  
“Seriously??” Thomas exclaimed, “Emile, tell us everything you know!!!!”  
Emile grinned, “I don’t need to do that. You can learn yourself, don’t you know there’s a cartoon about them?” He immediately ran over to his desk, grabbing his tablet and swiftly tapping the screen. Moments later, the first episode of the series popped up. He handed it to Remy, “Of course, there’s some that’s been altered for plot purposes. But my grandma helped work on this project, so it’s pretty accurate. Now, go learn some of the mythology!”   
Thomas and Remy exchanged glances, before both of them burst out laughing. Of course Emile’s family knew all about the Planets and of course Emile knew of an entire cartoon about them. Why had they been so stressed about keeping this a secret?   
"However…." Both paused and turned to their friend, who grinned, "I don't give these to you for free, you have to let me meet them, okay??"  
"Well, we don't even know if they'll come back," Thomas admitted slowly, "But if they do-"  
"If?? Girl, you saw how Mars and Venus were. Those two were jumping at the chance to come back, we'll see them again!" Remy laughed, and Giovanni nodded in agreement. "There's no chance we've seen the last of them, don't worry about that! You'll meet them, Emile."  
He laughed, "Okay, good! I can't wait!!"


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No trigger warnings. Enjoy!

Saturn took a deep breath. Today shouldn’t have been a stressful day for him, really. Uranus had created something from one of his moon’s landscapes and wanted to show him and Jupiter. This was a common occurrence; Uranus liked to create sculptures. Back when they were young, he and Mars used to create them together all the time. When Earth died and they went their separate ways, he continued to make them. The only difference was now he did it alone. Ever since the beginning of the human’s so called “space age”, they had had to destroy the creations after he finished in order to prevent any humans from finding them, but that didn’t stop him from creating all he could.   
No, none of this raised any anxiety in Saturn. What worried him was what he had to tell them. He couldn’t keep it a secret that the humans had seen him, Mercury, Mars, and Venus, but he knew neither of them would take it easily either… Jupiter especially. What if this made him change his mind about letting the humans live? One of the main reasons they were supposed to send the explorers back was fear of them discovering their existence. Sending them back would probably be pointless now… Killing them would make the most logical sense.  
Saturn sighed, knowing that this would end badly no matter what happened. The only other option would be to not tell them at all, but he couldn’t do that! These Planets were his family and the only ones he had left. Neptune and Pluto were gone, and the other three really thought he was evil. Jupiter and Uranus were all he had. He couldn’t betray their trust like that. His mind swirled, desperately searching for some line of reasoning to calm his nerves. It took several moments, but he did manage to find one: chances were, even if they did try to kill the humans, Mars and his other idiotic friends would protect them. That was supposed to be their job, right? Protect humanity? If they failed, that was their fault. Not his. They would do their jobs, and he would do his. He wouldn’t be at fault if they failed.  
He just had to hope they wouldn’t.  
Moments later, he arrived on one of Uranus’ moons. He wasn’t sure which - Uranus did name them all, but he had so many that he couldn’t ever hope to keep track of them. Saturn really just knew them by sight. This one was one of the smallest, and was littered with craters created from where old sculptures had once stood centuries ago.  
The quiet Planet looked around, wondering where his friend was. It didn’t take long for him to reveal himself, fortunately.   
“Saturn!!” Uranus exclaimed, smiling widely. He ran over to his friend and hugged him immediately, Saturn awkwardly patting his back in response. Physical touch wasn’t ever really his strong suit.  
“Hey,” Saturn said once he had pulled away, smile not once leaving his face, “Is Jupiter here yet?”  
Uranus shook his head, “Not yet, but he better get here soon. I’m not showing you until he gets here,” He stuck out his tongue, and Saturn laughed.   
“What did you make this time?”  
“I just told you you can’t know yet!” Uranus exclaimed, “Were you even listening?”   
Before Saturn could reply, Uranus ran behind him. He turned to see that Jupiter had arrived, and Uranus was giving him the same hug greeting. He had a similar reaction as Saturn, only returning the hug slightly less awkwardly. Jupiter opened his mouth to say something, but by this point Uranus was onto another topic.   
“Come on, I wanna show you guys now!” He announced, and before long the two other Planets followed him.  
He led them a short distance away, behind one of the landscape’s rocky gray hills. Right behind the hill stood a proudly made sculpture, and Uranus grinned proudly. He held out his arms in a grand gesture, singing out a dramatic “ta-daaa!!!!” as he pridefully showed off his work. Jupiter and Saturn stood in silent awe.  
“Uranus… You made us?” Jupiter asked in disbelief, looking at the sculpture in front of them.   
It was a perfect replica of the three of them, standing side by side. Uranus had the biggest smile on his face, standing in the middle of them with his arms wrapped over both of their shoulders. His hair was just as disorderly and unkept as his real life self, and his wildly happy expression perfectly captured the look on his face right now. Jupiter stood to the right, face away from the group, but eyes glancing back towards them. A slight smile on present on the corners of his lips, and his face was slightly twisted in a way that indicated he was trying not to smile. Saturn was on the other side, face tilted downwards but looking up timidly. He too, was smiling.  
They were all happy.  
“Dude… This is awesome.” Saturn said finally, “How long did this take you?”  
“I have no sense of time whatsoever, but a while!!” Uranus exclaimed enthusiastically, “Isn’t it awesome?? It’s us!!!” Suddenly, he paused, his voice going smaller, “And…”  
Jupiter looked at him questioningly, silently urging him to continue.  
“This is one of my moons the humans haven’t discovered yet…”  
“You want to keep it up?” Jupiter realized instantly, eyes wide,   
“Uranus, you know how dangerous-”  
“I know, and if they find it I’ll take it down immediately!” Uranus defended, “But I just want to keep it up for a little while, their main focus is on those other explorers right now anyways! Planets inside the Solar System are boring to them now. It’ll take them at least another one of their decades or something before they stop with that anyways!!”  
“I’m aware of that, Uranus, but…” Jupiter paused, looking nervous, “But-”  
“I’ll keep an eye on it, Jupiter I swear!” He pouted. “Come on, I’m not stupid!”  
It was quiet for several moments, before Jupiter sighed.  
“You take it down the second they might find it, okay?”  
Uranus smiled wider than probably should have been possible, and launched himself at Jupiter in a huge hug. “Yes!!!” He laughed, and Jupiter shook his head, a fond smile that he would have denied existing present on his face.  
Saturn, who had opted to remain silent through this conversation, bit his lip nervously. Well, the topic of mankind had come up. He might as well get it over with, despite all the voices screaming in his head to put it off forever.  
“Uh… so ... about the humans knowing about our existence….”  
Both stopped immediately, and looked at Saturn expectantly.   
He bit his lip, “Two of the ones on the ship may now know I exist.”  
“What??” Uranus exclaimed, clearly concerned “What happened?? How?? Are you okay??”  
Saturn hesitated, and then decided to blurt it all out at once.  
“Well-maybe-Venus-and-Mars-had-the-genius-idea-of-talking-to-them-so-I-had-to-go-on-their-ship-with-Mercury-to-stop-them-and-they-had-already-revealed-themselves-so-it-was-too-late-but-by-that-point-we-were-already-on-the-ship-too-and-so-we-also-talked-to-them-and-now-they-know-of-all-of-our-existences-and-the-other-three-are-probably-going-to-visit-them-again.” He said, somehow all in a single breath. He inhaled deeply, both to try to calm his nerves and because that had taken a lot out of his lungs. He glanced back and forth between the two other Jovian Planets, waiting for their reply.  
“They saw you, and those three?” Jupiter finally demanded, voice a mix of anger and concern, “When was this!”  
“Only a few hours ago.”  
“By this point, they’ve probably told authority’s on Earth, and their ship is full of cameras… damn it Saturn, what were you thinking??? This puts all of us in danger, you especially!" Jupiter exclaimed, now pacing back and forth as he tended to when he was stressed.   
“I checked their cameras and we can’t be seen on them, and I deleted them for good measure. They have no proof and it was only two humans who saw us.” Saturn spoke rapidly, “It’s not as bad as it seems!”  
“Eh, it kind of is.” Uranus added, and Saturn shot him a glare.   
Silence swept over them, Jupiter pinching the bridge of his nose and squeezing his eyes shut. Saturn kept quiet, staring at the ground and trying not to panic.  
“Saturn, if you want them to live, why would you do that??” Jupiter finally said, “You’re the one who has been trying to convince us to leave them alone!! Now, you’re forcing our hand; we can’t let them keep living knowing we exist!”   
If he was being honest, that did make sense. It was kind of partially his fault. That wasn’t going to stop Saturn from arguing, however. “I just told you, it was only two humans, and neither of them have any proof. They can’t prove anything and they aren’t idiots, they won’t tell anyone else when they know it’ll make them look crazy!”  
“How do you know?” Uranus countered, “You don’t know them well enough to say that, do you?”  
“They’re flying a ship and they made it out of our solar system, they at least have to have some kind of common sense for that!”  
“Idiotic humans make impressive accomplishments all the time, and besides they’re all morons!”  
“They still hate being embarrassed.”  
“They also hate keeping secrets!!”   
“Enough!” Jupiter exclaimed, and Saturn and Uranus immediately shut up. He quietly looked back and forth between the two for several long moments, before his gaze settled on Saturn.  
“Saturn, this is the last chance we can give. You want them to live? Fine. But you,” Jupiter pointed at him, “You have to keep the others away from them! If they visit again, if even a single other human finds out about us, the ship is going down. For good.”  
“You want ME to keep them away??” Saturn demanded,   
“Seriously?? How am I supposed to do that, you know even Mercury barely has a handle on Venus and Mars, and all three of them love the humans!! I won’t be able to take my eyes off them for a second!”  
“Looks like someone might have to hang out with them~” Uranus taunted, grinning, “Say hi to Mars for me!”  
“What??” Saturn exclaimed, looking back and forth between them. Uranus had a huge grin on his face, clearly thinking this was the funniest outcome possible. Jupiter was much more serious, but even he had a humorous glint in his eye.   
‘They think this is funny.’ Saturn realized suddenly, before he began shouting again.  
“Are you serious?? How am I supposed to do that, they all hate us, you guys know that! How am I supposed to watch them and stay near them without them practically attacking me??”  
“Well, if you want them to live, you’ll figure it out.” Jupiter hissed, “Do you hear me??”  
Saturn stared at him in disbelief for several seconds. He narrowed his eyes.  
“Loud and clear.” He replied, voice void of all emotion. Then, he was gone.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One trigger warning

“Mars, when are you gonna tell us what all of this is about?”

The young Planet grinned, looking up at the 8 others who had just arrived, all with varying looks of confusion plastered on their faces. He couldn’t blame any of them; after all, he had just demanded all of them come to his home that night without giving any more information to any of them. But that was okay.

“You’ll see,” He grinned, replying to Earth’s question. She didn’t look convinced, crossing her arms across her chest and raising one eyebrow. He ignored her, and immediately grabbed the wrists of the two Planets closest to him - who happened to be be Jupiter and Venus - and started running off, “Follow me!!” He called.

They all exchanged glances, and then they did.

They didn’t have to run far and all caught up to Mars rather quickly. He released Jupiter’s and Venus’ wrists, and then gestured to the ground so everyone would sit. Once they did, he immediately took a seat besides Uranus, never letting the smile drop from his face for even a moment. Uranus had no idea what was going on either, but he smiled just as excitedly as Mars did, trusting that whatever he wanted to show them would be worth it.

“So… are you gonna tell us what’s going on?” Saturn asked after several moments, only to immediately be shushed by Mars. He watched as the red Planet pointed up at the sky above them, and all of them let their gaze shift to meet where he was pointing. 

Streaks of light flew across the night sky, crossing the distant view of stars painted across the stretch of land. The bright speck flew overtop of distant mounds of dirt and rock, tails of fire traveling right behind them as both disappeared into the void. The dark sky lit up with their beauty, illuminating even the faces of the Planets watching them from so far below. It was a sight that would be engraved in their memories for the rest of their lives, a beautiful phenomenon few would have the privilege to see. That few included only this small family of nine.

“Woah…” Pluto’s small voice whispered in the background, all of them completely awestruck by such a sight. Their gazes were locked above them, so none noticed how Mars looked to each one of them individually, ensuring they were all enjoying themselves before he allowed himself to do the same. They all watched, silent besides the occasionally amazed gasp or giggle (usually from Venus or Uranus) from the view. 

If there had been any outsiders, they would have been able to tell the group that they sat there for hours. They would have been able to mention that not one of them looked away from the sky, besides a quick glance to the faces of those besides them. To them, however, it passed by in only a few moments, starting in one instant and gone the next. Gone all too soon. They had loved every second of it.

Once the meteor shower had passed, no one dared to speak for several minutes. No one wanted to be the one to ruin the moment, and no one wanted to let it truly end. Maybe, if they were all quiet enough, maybe it would last forever. Maybe, just maybe, if they all sat quietly, leaning on each other for warmth, this night would never end. They just had to pretend it was everlasting, and maybe it would be.

But alas, even the best of things have to come to an end eventually. 

***

Saturn’s hands were tangled in his own hair, grasping the strands harshly and all but pulling them from his own skull. His breaths came in sharp gasps as he desperately tried to control his own breathing. Eyes darted back and forth, mind swirling with thoughts spinning like a tornado, crashing into each other and causing chaos inside his brain.

He had just been given an impossible task, and had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to even attempt to accomplish it. Did Jupiter and Uranus actually expect him to babysit the others? When those three had their heart set on something, they were going to get it. There is no way Saturn could even hope to stop them. Not to mention, they hated him - Mars especially! Honestly, it wouldn’t be surprising if Mars went to visit the humans just to spite him. That would be just like him. Saturn wouldn’t be able to stop them even if he spent every second of the rest of his life keeping an eye on them. This was bound to end in failure!

Saturn screamed in anger, punching the air in front of him in rage. He huffed afterwards, suddenly upset that his home was only made of gas. Punching a bunch of gas didn’t really do much as far as releasing anger was concerned, so that was a complete fail. He probably should’ve went to one of his moons or one of the many asteroids or shattered moons making up his rings, those would probably have been more satisfying to take his anger out on. 

Unfortunately for him, he was in too much of a panic to consider that. 

It took him another hour before he managed to calm himself down, though his breathing was still labored and his hands still shook ever so slightly. Nevertheless, he was calm enough to try to formulate a plan and figure out what to do. 

He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. He needed to stay close to those three without making them think he was spying on them or just being generally evil. He had to get close enough and make them at least trust his common sense, so they’d agree with him that visiting the humans was a terrible plan. But there was no way they’d do that, unless… 

He groaned, he was going to have to befriend them. 

“Well, there goes my pride…” He mumbled, mentally punching Jupiter and Uranus right in the face. He did not want to spend time with any of them; after all, they were still practically in the middle of a war. Earth’s death had done more than humanity could ever know, and the division it caused ran deep. It ran so deep it had driven Neptune and Pluto to flee, to the remaining Jovian and Terrestrial Planets to refuse to talk to each other for billions of years. It drove apart an entire family and the damage was irreversible, and now he had to attempt to mend the division to protect the fate of the ones who broke it in the first place?

Even the communication Saturn now had with the others was more than they’d had for so long, and it had only started in the last thousand years. He barely knew these Planets anymore. He just knew they were his enemies now, and now his family decided to throw him to them as a challenge. Just to spite him.

Maybe the humans weren’t worth it. There were only a few dozen on the ship, and there were billions back on Earth. He could just let them be; Jupiter and Uranus might kill them, but in the big picture that wouldn’t be a big deal, would it? It’s just a couple humans, mankind will be fine without them. He could just leave them be.

Saturn sighed; he knew he cared too much to let that happen, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.

He stared out into the distance, moving so he could have a clearer view of the expanse in front of him. He stared towards the sun, close to where Mars, Venus, and Mercury resided. He wondered if they were there now. Or maybe at this point they were already with the humans again, ruining their chances of survival without even realizing it. That was probably just as likely, if Saturn was being honest with himself. There was a huge chance he had already failed when he hadn’t even begun. That was just great.

A distant speck caught his eye, and he turned to see Earth come into his view. He narrowed his eyes, watching the planet with careful eyes. There was the rest of the humans, there was the rest of Earth’s murderers. Saturn may not have been as extreme as Jupiter or Uranus, but he did agree with them on the most important thing: Humanity was the cause of their sister’s death, they were murderers. Individually, killing them without giving them a fighting chance was unfair, but Saturn still hated them. Deep down, he hated that he believed that. He hated that he didn’t just agree with his family that less humans was always better in all cases. His stupid sense of morality kept him from letting these explorers be killed, and he wished it didn’t. This would be so much more simpler if he didn’t.

He kept staring at the distant planet and its inhabitants. They didn’t even know what was happening now, that distant and powerful beings were deciding on the fate of their proud explorers as they went about their day. How wonderful their ignorance must be; they didn’t have to worry about this like Saturn did. They didn’t have to worry about much outside of their tiny world, they didn’t know about the existence of the rest of the residents of the universe. And yet, they could still make his life impossibly hard.

Disgusting.

Rising to his full height, Saturn looked around once more, trying to decide the best course of action. Sure, he could procrastinate and take a few more hours, but every second that ticked by was a chance the Terrestrials were already with the humans again. He couldn’t risk it. He couldn’t waste another second.

So, off he went. 

***

“So…” Emile mumbled, laying on his bed, head hanging off the side. He looked over at Remy, who stood on the other side of the room leaning against the wall. “When do you think we’ll see them again?” 

“I have no clue,” Remy shrugged, crossing the room to sit beside him. Emile immediately swung his feet down, sitting right side up again, brown eyes watching the other man. “I figured it would be soon, but it’s already been a couple days time. So I don’t know.”

Emile frowned, beginning to pout. Remy chuckled.

“Hey, I’m sure they’ll come soon.” He said, putting a hand comfortingly on his shoulder. Emile, in response, simply fell back into friend and leaned against him. Remy’s eyes went wide - but his (pointless) sunglasses were still on, thankfully. No reaction could be seen.

“Yeah, I hope so.” Emile sighed, staring at the wall. Somehow his gaze went past the painted white metal, however, and his eyes seemed to be staring off into the far reaches of the galaxy, searching for the Planets himself. Remy watched him in silence, before he cautiously laid his arm down over Emile’s shoulder. They stayed like this, time ticking on in the silent room.

“HA I KNEW IT!” 

Emile and Remy flew up into a sitting position, separating instantly. In front of them now stood one mischevious AI, who was grinning playfully.

“Knew what??” Remy demanded, immediately defensive. The sunglasses that had been set down besides him back on in an instant.

“Giovanni, I talked to you about this already!” Emile exclaimed. “You have to stop spying on people!!” 

Giovanni only laughed in response, ignoring what both of them had said, “Thomas wants ya, there’s another reporter calling to talk to the crew. See you in a bit!” 

He disappeared immediately after, and Emile and Remy stared at each other in exasperation, before both dissolved into laughter.

“Alright, let’s go see what they want.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A panic attack, but it's not very detailed


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one trigger warning, please click the link to see the end notes before you read if you need it! This one is a little more serious than previous chapters.
> 
> Other Notes:  
Yes, I am aware that Venus is extremely hot and has no liquid water on its surface. The beginning scene of this chapter, however, does take place a few billion years in the past, and I went and did some research (most of which didn’t make it in here anywhere but it was fun to learn about). There is actually evidence that there could have been water - or even life - on Venus back then! Here’s some resources I referenced if you’re a space nerd too and find that kind of stuff interesting -  
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/venus-could-have-been-habitable-billions-years-180973203/  
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-climate-modeling-suggests-venus-may-have-been-habitable  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJahK6kypG0  
Also, the sun is referred to as Sol once in this chapter. In English, the sun doesn’t actually have a scientific proper name, and Sol is more of a poetic one. But in here, that’s just what her name is going to be.  
https://earthsky.org/space/what-is-the-suns-name  
So… Yeah! Enjoy the chapter!

The coolness of the water swirled around his feet as Venus slowly stepped into the lake in front of him, smiling as he looked out into the distance. The water here wasn’t very deep, not even up to his knees, and it didn’t get all that much deeper farther in either, only maybe to just above his waist. This was his favorite spot to relax, now. Just a small pool where he could feel the sun on his face. He closed his eyes, facing the sky and smiling contentedly. The warmth hitting his face now was pleasant and peaceful and soothed any tension that he had felt before. The heat was nice, he could stay there forever if he wanted to.

A soft sound of splashing shook him out of his trance. He opened his eyes and turned around, grinning when he saw that Earth had joined him. He opened his mouth to shout a happy greeting, but immediately stopped when he noticed the troubled look on her face. Concern instantly filled him. 

“Earth?” He asked slowly, “Kiddo, Is something wrong?”

Earth chuckled, though the tension never left her face. “Venus, you know we’re almost the same age-”

“I’m still older!” Venus grinned, but quickly let that drop, “But are you alright? You didn’t answer.”

Earth paused, nervously playing with her fingers. “Well…” She said slowly, staring at the water below them and refusing to meet the other Planet’s eyes. She slowly took a step into the water and came a little closer. “I…” 

Venus didn’t say anything, but put a hand comfortingly on her arm, silently urging her to continue. 

She inhaled deeply, squeezing her eyes shut as she spoke.

“Venus, do you think we were worth it?”

“Huh?”

“When Sol died,” She hurridly clarified, “When she died just so we could come about. Do you think that was worth it?”

Venus’ face scrunched in confusion, not exactly sure how to respond to such a confusing question as that. “Well… I don’t really know… It’s sad that she’s gone, but if she wasn’t, we wouldn’t be here so… I don’t know.” He tilted his head slightly, speaking his next words slowly, “Why do you ask?”

Earth continued, “I mean, did she do that because she was lonely, because she didn’t want to be here, or because she genuinely wanted us?”

“Neither of us really knew her, Earth,” Venus reminded, “Why don’t you ask Jupiter or Saturn, they’re the oldest, or even Neptune or Uranus. They were the only ones who really got much of a chance to know her. They could answer that the best. Why ask me?”

“Well…” Venus got the message she didn’t want to answer that, “do you think it would be a bad idea for one of us to do what she did?”

Venus stopped immediately, pulling his hand away from her. So that was what this conversation was really about. “Earth, do you mean…” Earth nodded, and Venus bit his lip, “But you’ll -”

“I know!” Earth exclaimed, “But I just… I don’t know why, Venus, but this has been stuck in my mind for so long and I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s been so long…”

She turned to look at him this time, but Venus quickly looked away now. He didn’t want to look her in the eyes. He didn’t want to see that emotion. He didn’t want to deal with this. His best friend, his sister, someone he desperately cared for, had just come to him to ask him for advice on whether or not she should die. How was he supposed to answer that? What was he supposed to tell her? He knew that the death of a Planet could bring about something beautiful, just like the death of a Sun had so long ago. But was he supposed to encourage it? Was he supposed to encourage the death of one of the best people he knew? He couldn’t do that, he loved her too much. Wouldn’t that be wrong?

Would it be wrong of him to not? 

“I…” Venus trailed off, not knowing what else to say. Maybe… He could deal with all of those questions later… For now, he only needed to know one thing. He looked at her carefully, “You haven’t yet, right?”

She shook her head quickly, “No! Not yet, no. I still haven’t decided,” She smiled slightly, chuckling, “Don’t worry, I’m not dying yet.”

Venus wanted to laugh along with her, but he didn’t think he could. Not with the threat of ‘yet’ hanging in the air. He couldn’t find it in himself to laugh at that. 

Instead, he just wrapped his arms around her, and held her as tightly as he could.

She hugged him back and didn’t let go.

***

Venus sat in the now dried up valley on the surface of his home, leaning his backagainst a rock off to the side. He could still remember a time when this land was filled with cool waters, but now it was instead filled with countless memories. Some being created now.

The Planet now watched as his friend impatiently paced the ground ahead of him, eyes darting back and forth in his desperate search for Mercury. Logan had agreed that once he got there, the three of them would go and visit the humans again, but it seemed like he was taking an eternity to get there. 

Patton chuckled to himself as Roman groaned loudly. He turned to face Patton, who leaned back on his hands as he moved from the ground to instead sit on top of the stone. Roman sighed. Patton decided to attempt to change the subject, if only to distract him for a bit.

“So, I’m excited to see them again, but I do wonder what we’ll talk about.” Patton said, “What questions do you think they’ll have?”

“What’s the answer to life is a usual one.” Roman said after a moment of thinking back, searching his memories. He grinned, and Patton silently applauded himself for successfully ceasing his pacing. “Oh, and about aliens!”

Patton smiled, “Yeah, they probably will. Or they’ll ask how we live on ‘unhabitable planets’.”

“That will definitely be asked!” Roman sighed, looking off into the distance dramatically. “But I love the ones about what’s beyond the stars! About how beautiful it is out there! Or, when they ask about others beyond the horizon - but not just the regular questions” Roman explained, now standing in front of his friend, spinning around and waving his arms in a dramatic fashion, to present his story as though he were giving a monologue. “The ones where they want to know about how the beauty of life expands throughout the universe in so many unique ways, the ones where they appreciate the beauty of these differences, the ones where they just want to meet and love others like them in so many ways, yet unlike them in a million others!”

Patton giggled, “I know what you mean.”

“Oh I can’t wait!” Roman exclaimed, then frowned. “I can’t wait. It’s taking too long, when’s Logan gonna get here?” He demanded; Patton’s distraction had run its course.

“It’s only been about 5 minutes Roman, just be patient.” Patton reminded, chuckling again when Roman responded by groaning again. He was about to protest another time, when he heard someone clear their throat behind him. His pout immediately turned to a grin, and he spun around to greet Logan. The smile left his face quickly however, when he saw who it actually was.

“What do you want Saturn?” He spat, eyes narrowing. Saturn glared right back.

“What are you guys about to do?” Saturn demanded instead of answering. He folded his arms across his chest, not letting his harsh gaze leave Roman once. If looks could kill, the Planet would be dead. Roman shrank back ever so slightly, though he didn’t miss how bloodshot the other Planet’s eyes had turned, or the way his hands shook ever so slightly. He didn’t dwell on this, however, instead remembering his annoyance and focusing on that.

“We’re about to visit the humans again, Saturn.” Said a voice from behind them. Saturn turned and saw that Mercury had shown up, and it was Saturn who stepped back this time, frown deepening. Roman grinned, though Logan ignored it.

“Yeah!” Patton bounced up and stood besides Roman, “Wanna come?” He offered, while Roman’s face twisted into a horrified expression. 

“You want to invite him?” He demanded, “He’ll probably kill them!” 

Saturn rolled his eyes, and ignored both of them. He turned to Logan, “You seriously approve of this??” He exclaimed, “You’re supposed to be the smart one!”

“They already know of our existence, Saturn,” Logan explained,” And they took it rather well. If we visit only the ones who have already seen us, and ensure that they don’t go around letting this information out, I am sure we will be fine. I would not have approved of this unless I thoroughly thought it through.” 

“Yeah!” Roman grinned, walking straight up to Saturn. He flicked the rings above his head tauntingly, “So why don’t you just head on back home? Leave us alone for a change?”

Saturn shoved him back harshly, “Get the hell away from me,” He hissed, “And no, I will not! You morons need to realize that this idiotic plan isn’t just putting you guys in danger, but us too! And even the humans that you all claim to love oh so much. This is ridicious. So get your act together and realize this is a horrible idea!”

“Oh, Saturn, we aren’t going to -” Patton started to say, but Saturn interrupted him. He noticed how concerned Venus was growing, and he wasn’t ready to deal with that right now.

“Don’t ‘Oh Saturn’ me!” Saturn exclaimed, fists clenched and knuckles white, “Stay away from the humans!”

“Saturn.” Logan said, interrupting their argument. “You can stop now.” Saturn’s glare grew harsher, but he didn’t say anything. Logan turned to the other two now. “We will be going now.”

Logan and Roman quickly disappeared, and Patton waved a short “goodbye” before he did too, leaving Saturn standing alone on the scorching surface of the planet. 

He ran his fingers through his hair in deep frustration, squeezing his eyes shut. 

“Of course,” He whispered quietly to himself, “They just had to make this as difficult as possible, didn’t they?” He opened his eyes, releasing the strands of hair from his fists. He looked off into the distance, in the vague direction he knew the ship would be, even if he couldn’t see it from where he was.

“Well, time for plan B.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk of death, almost sorta talk of suicide? It depends how you look at it honestly.... It's a little complicated. It is not out of depression but there is a character talking about killing themself.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two trigger warnings, see them on the end notes

It was silent as he screamed. 

He never noticed the asteroid, never truly saw it with his own eyes. He was on the opposite side of the world when it flew in, and those who did see it couldn’t warn him in time. Truthfully, they didn’t even realize it was going to hit until it was much too late. He didn’t notice it. He wouldn’t have at all, in fact, if it weren’t for the shocking waves of pain flooding through his own body. Though he was connected to his home in every way, nothing ever felt like this. Meteorites hit him all the time. He usually hardly felt it. But this? This was different. 

He couldn’t hear anything - for his home had no atmosphere, nothing would make a sound - but he could feel the vibrations and the cracking of rock under his hands. He slowly forced himself to look up, and he instantly knew what he was feeling: Not the impact of the meteorite itself, but what it had caused. The crust of his land had cracked, hills springing up in a matter of seconds. The shock wave had pushed entire hills of rock and dust out of the crust, creating a new furrowed and broken terrain. He could still feel the ground shaking, could hardly see through the dust that had been thrown everywhere. In what seemed to him to be no time at all, the very landscape of his entire home had been changed forever.

He blinked, pressing his hands to the cracked rocks in a desperate attempt to get himself off the ground. This didn’t last long. His head pounded and spun, and his vision was blurred. Dizzy and exhausted, he slumped back to the ground. 

He saw in the distance three figures running towards him, saw their mouths moving - probably calling out to him, forgetting that the words would never be heard by anyone in their panic. They grew closer, and he made out the worried faces of Venus, Earth, and Jupiter. His eyes shut just as he felt Jupiter take ahold of his hand.

The hills stood tall in the distance. They were a new magnificent land that would one day come to be known as the weird terrain. They were created from the same asteroid that created the Caloris Basin, one of the largest impact craters in the Solar System, and the main feature of Mercury. 

***

“Thomas!” A joyous shout rose Thomas from his sleep, blinking rapidly. “They’re here again, and they didn’t disable the cameras this time, I can sorta see them!”

“Wha-” Thomas covered his eyes as all of the room’s bright lights turned on at once, effectively blinding him. Even if he now lost his vision, his sleep deprived brain finally registered who the voice was at this point. “Giovanni, what are you doing??”

“Waking you up, you need to! Remy is already up too, so don’t make me call him in here to get you up. You know I will!”

“No no I’m up I’m up!” Thomas mumbled, still half asleep and very much not “up”. He didn’t move from his bed, still covering his eyes and hardly speaking comprehensively. “Who is here, though?” He mumbled, having absolutely no idea who it could be. ‘Maybe mom came out for a vist’ his brain rather unhelpfully suggested, apparently forgetting where they were.

“The Planets, duh!”

This woke Thomas up completely. “Why didn’t you say that earlier?!” He demanded, springing up out of bed. He threw a random shirt on, “They’re here, now?? Did you get Emile??”

“I did say that!” Giovanni protested, watching as Thomas scrambled over to his mirror and tried to look minorly presentable - or at the very least, like he didn’t just wake up half a minute ago. After several desperate attempts to comb his hair, he gave up and just threw a hat on, before he turned back to the AI. “Remy already got Emile, he sent me to get you. Now come on, they’re downstairs already, let’s go!”

Thomas nodded and quickly hurried out of his room, heading down the hall towards the staircase. Giovanni had disappeared by now since he could just travel through the ship as fast as he wanted to. Thomas unfortunately could not do this. So instead, he ran down as fast and as quietly as he could. 

The second that he arrived, he opened the door - completely silent besides a low click that was let out as he slowly shut the door behind him. As soon as he did, he noticed the entire room was dark, save for a soft, pale light shining in from the bottom of a closed door across the room.

He let his gaze settle on this for several seconds, before he cautiously crept forwards. He could now hear the distant and muffled sound of voices speaking, though he couldn’t make out any actual words, or pick up any individual voices. Thomas stood still. He suddenly recalled the times he would eavesdrop on his brothers as a small child, and wished he had a glass cup to do the same now. Just to see what he was walking into before he did. He shook his head, silently smiling to himself in amusement at his own thoughts. Time to stop procrastinating. He approached the door and held out his hand to take ahold of the handle. But before he could open it, his mouth was covered and he was pulled back.

“Don’t scream, I need to talk to you!” Was hissed into his ear, and Thomas didn’t move. The hand over his mouth and arm across his neck was cold, and very… odd. Though the grip was tight, the skin was light and somehow almost felt like it was only wind. It was like nothing was holding him besides the strongest force of air there was, and he knew he wouldn’t have been able to break free even if he wanted to. It was the strangest thing Thomas had ever felt. Pulling himself from his thoughts, he quickly nodded an agreement, even if screaming was still his best plan.

The captain was released immediately, and he stumbled away from the unknown person. Immediately on guard, he spun around to get a good look at whoever this was. His eyes widened. And though every logical thought in his head screamed otherwise, he didn’t scream.

Saturn stood there, pure white eyes staring him down. Thomas shrank in on himself slightly, having no idea what the Planet was doing here. The rest were in the room, right? Why wasn’t he with them? Actually, why was he here at all? According to the others, he sounded like bad news. Even if Thomas was pretty sure he was the one who first saved them, he still needed to be cautious. The others had to know him better than he ever could.

Saturn stood there in silence for several moments, an intimidating look plastered on his face. Thomas tried to stand a little more confidently. Hey, that definitely would impress Saturn and, if he actually was evil, would surely discourage him from destroying him. Most likely. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully. Okay, it almost definitely would not, but it was worth a shot.

After several long agonizing moments of silence, Saturn let out a loud sigh. Thomas watched him in complete confusion as, instead of speaking, the Planet rubbed his forehead and groaned.

“God, I did not think this through, did I?” He mumbled to himself, “Wow…I really am an idiot,” He sighed again, before he looked at Thomas finally. Thomas froze, having no idea what he was supposed to say or do. Was he supposed to reply to the Planet callnig himself an idiot? Probably not. He opted to stay quiet.

“Okay so, you’re the captain of this ship, right?” Saturn finally addressed him, “Or you’re at least the one in charge?” Thomas nodded. “Okay good. So I can tell you that you’re turning back and you are done talking to the others.”

“Wait, what?” Thomas finally found his voice. “I’m doing what now?”

“Were you not listening?” Saturn demanded, “You’re turning back! Now! Your adventure is over, and you are done talking to Venus, Mercury, and Mars. Done. So you can just forget they existed.”

“But they’re here right now!” Thomas protested, “Why can’t we talk to them?” Internally, he had no idea why he was arguing. Was he trying to get himself killed? Half of him was screaming to just shut up and hope he was going to survive this. But the other half… That one still remembered what he saw, when the asteroid was split in two. He was the one who saved them all. That half of him wasn’t afraid, just confused.

“This is the last time.” Saturn hissed out, eyes narrowing. “After this, that’s it! If you don’t, you will regret it.”

“Why??”

“Because if you don’t turn back now,” Saturn stepped closer, and Thomas stepped back. “You are going to get killed.” He spoke darkly, his voice deep, echoing unnaturally. “I’m telling you now, if you don’t turn this ship around, you and everyone you love will regret it. You will all be dead within a week, I promise you that.”

Thomas stared at the threatening Planet standing over him. He knew he was dangerous, he knew this should be terrifying, but somehow, only one thought was in his mind.

“Was that a threat, or a warning?”

Saturn clenched his jaw - a small movement, but Thomas noticed it nonetheless. He stepped back, and without another word he disappeared from sight.

Thomas stayed still for several long moments, holding his breath. He only exhaled when he was completely sure Saturn was truly gone. Once he was, he still didn’t move, listening to the sound of his breathing and trying to calm his own rapidly beating heart. What was that about?? Why did he appear so suddenly?? Why did he leave just as quickly?? What just happened?? Saturn was odd, and Thomas had no idea how he was supposed to feel about him, or about any of this. 

He placed a hand over his heart. He was fine, that was fine. That was completely, one hundred percent, fine. His hands weren’t shaking, obviously not. Duh. He wasn’t scared to death, obviously. He was just a little nervous. That was all.

“Thomas?” He spun around quickly to see Remy poking his head out of the now open door. “Are you coming?”

“What?” Thomas asked, “Yeah, yeah, I’ll be right there.” Remy nodded, and disappeared back into the room. 

Thomas took one last moment, and stared at the place where Saturn had stood only a few moments before. He then turned and followed Remy into the room.

He could have sworn he saw a speck of purple in the reflection of the window out of the corner of his eye, but it was probably nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings: Major injury (in a flashback), and a character is briefly held against his will


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: This week has been kinda tough so this chapter is kinda rushed, especially the ending, so I apologize in advance 😅. I'll make it up with next chapter!!! I promise!!!  
2 trigger warnings, see end notes

Word spread quickly through the Solar System of the impact, and Mercury was not alone. Fearing that his own Planet was still too unstable for the time being, Venus, Earth, and Jupiter quickly took him to the surface of Earth’s home until he could wake up. 

Uranus was the earliest one to arrive.

“Is he okay??” This question was the first thing to come out of the Planet’s mouth as he raced over to the smaller Planet. Though he had been one of the farthest away, it was no surprise to any of the others why he had come the quickest. After all, it hadn’t been too long ago when he was in a similar position as Mercury.

Well, that wasn’t exactly true. He had been in much worse shape. While Mercury’s asteroid had completely changed his surface, the asteroid that had hit Uranus had been powerful enough to knock his home completely on its side. He had never recovered fully, and truthfully he didn’t think he ever would. Uranus knew how bad this could feel.

“He’s alright, he already woke up once.” Venus said softly, though no one could deny the worry plain in his voice. “He didn’t seem to know what was going on and went right back to sleep, though…”

“He better wake up soon!” Mars arrived next, running over to the group. “He still owes me a favor from the bet he lost!” Though he was joking, it was obvious to anyone who knew him how scared he was for his friend. All you had to do to see the tension hidden under his smile was look down to the clenched fists and the way he bit the inside of his cheek. He was only trying to hide his concern.

But the second he saw Mercury’s pained expression, he dropped the act and glanced over to Earth. “How long was he alone?”

“Not long.” Earth quickly said, “ Venus saw the asteroid fly by and Jupiter was with me when he told us. We got there only… only just after it hit.” Mars nodded, though that did nothing to soothe his worries.

“He just needs rest.” Jupiter suddenly interrupted, “He’ll be perfectly fine, he’ll wake up soon and everything will go back to normal.” They all knew that, truthfully, they had no idea when he would wake up or if there would be any lasting damage. But the lie was comforting, so they wanted to believe it. Jupiter couldn’t do anything to help Mercury’s condition, but he could offer comforting lies, and that was what they needed at that moment.

They stayed silent for a while after that, but they stayed within eyesight of Mercury at all times. Saturn, Neptune, and Pluto arrived within the hour, but they joined in the silence too. Everyone was worried. No one would leave until Mercury woke up.

They stayed on Earth for a long time.

*** 

When Thomas had met the Terrestrial Planets for the second time, it would be a lie to say he knew what to expect.

If he had to guess, he thought it would be awkward like the first time. The Planets seemed to like humans though, so he figured maybe they’d ask some questions about life on Earth. There would be more vague warnings and more confusing comments, and then they would leave again. 

He did not expect to walk in on Emile painting Venus’ nails.

But sure enough, there the optimistic therapist sat, on a couch in the corner besides the closest equivelent to a god they had ever met. Mars (What was his name again? Roan? Rowan? ) stood next to Remy, watching Emile and Venus excitedly. He was blowing on his own bright red nails and arguing with Mercury, which meant…

“Come on Logan! It’ll be fun!”

“I refuse to participate in such a ridiculous activity.” Mercury, or Logan, scoffed. “There is absolutely nothing useful that will come out of putting human’s paint on our nails, and it will come off anyways, it’s pointless!”

“It’s fun!” Patton pouted, holding the finished hand up to Logan, light blue shining brightly. “Come on Lo, please?”

“Uh, what did I just walk in on?” Thomas questioned slowly, immediately feeling nervous as all six heads in the room flew to see him. Though those nerves didn’t compare to when Giovanni suddenly appeared in front of his face, and Thomas would deny it later if anyone claimed he jumped.

“Hey you made it, finally!! That only took you forever!” Giovanni exclaimed, before he disappeared and reappeared next to Emile. Fortunately for Patton, Emile was used to Giovanni’s overly excited behavior and didn’t flinch. He continued painting his nails. 

“They got here and Roman immediately started complimenting Emile’s nails,” Remy explained, chuckling. That was his name! “So -”

“He did mine too!” Roman grinned, “And after he does Patton’s, he’ll be doing Logan’s.”

“He will do no such thing, ever.” Logan crossed his arms over his chest, not noticing Patton mouthing ‘He’s gonna eventually,’ behind him. Though Saturn’s words still echoed through Thomas’ head, he couldn’t help smiling at the scene.

“I’m not gonna lie, I did not expect to walk into this,” Thomas admitted, chuckling as he sat down on the nearest chair, “I didn’t know Planets would do something as… I don’t know, human as painting nails. I’m glad that’s not below you.” Roman grinned. Out of the corner of his eye, Thomas saw Logan sigh and mumble something along the lines of “not again…” to himself.

“Ha, Logan! See! The humans are still amazed by us, I told you!” He exclaimed pridefully.

“That’s not much of an accomplishment,” Giovanni spoke up, grinning too. “I mean, humans created us robots too and they’re amazed by us, they just are weirdly impressed by anything that can speak that isn’t another human. It’s just their inferior mi -”

“Giovanni!” Emile momentarily put down the polish to properly scold him, “What did I tell you??”

“Except him,” Giovanni mumbled, crossing his arms and looking like an upset child. “I’m just messing around!!”

Remy rolled his eyes, and Patton laughed. 

“Okay, well, change of subject now,” Emile said, returning to Patton’s nails, “Now that Thomas is here, I have so many questions to ask you guys!”’’

“Well, what do you want to know?” Logan asked, tone neutral and straight to the point.

“You guys aren’t the only Planets, right?” Emile finished on Patton’s hand, who grinned and stared at his nails happily. “The records we found of you guys are always about you three, only a few mentions of any other Planets. What about them?”

“We were the only ones who visited you early humans,” Roman frowned, sharing a glance with Venus. “Though there’s more of us, they just kinda hate you guys.”

“Besides us, there is also Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.” Logan explained, “And there used to be Earth, which has to do with why we are the only ones who visited you.”

“Wait, what about the rest of the universe?” Remy asked. Logan shook his head in response. 

“That’s a discussion for another day.” He said simply, expression making it clear that he was not going to explain anything further than that. By the nervous looks on their faces, Thomas guessed Patton and Roman were not going to explain either. They let the topic drop, but Thomas had another question.

“You guys keep mentioning how the other Planets want to kill us and have been attacking us, are you going to explain why yet?”

Silence swept over the room and none of the Planets spoke for several achingly long seconds. Maybe that was the wrong thing to ask them? Fortunately, Roman broke the silence with a quiet “Way to bring down the mood,”.

“Well, there’s… There’s sorta three groups of us now.” Surprising them all, it was Patton who started to explain. “There’s us three, there’s Jupiter, Uranus, and Saturn, and then there is Neptune and Pluto. It was Earth’s death that caused that divide.”

“Earth is dead?” Emile gasped. 

“Yes, she is dead. That’s why the Jovian Planets hate you humans, and really any life on your planet.” Logan replied, “We are not just representations of the Planets, as you have seemed to simplify it as. We are the life force of those planets. Earth wanted to create more life to live on her home, and in order to do that, she gave her own life power to all of you.”

“So they blame us for that?” Thomas slowly started to put the pieces together; that actually made some sense. 

“Yeah, we think of you guys as her kids!” Patton said, smiling and trying to lighten the mood, “So we adopted you, you can call me dad!” Logan glared.

“You do not have to call him that.” Patton pouted. 

“The other three think you and all the other life murdered her!” Roman exclaimed, “They agreed to leave you guys alone a long time ago, but only if you stayed on Earth and never left. They call you a disease which needs to be contained, so… They were not happy when you guys left the Solar System, and honestly I’m quite surprised they didn’t kill you on the spot.”

“That would be thanks to Saturn. Though he too is angry that you were the so called reason for our sister’s death, he is less extreme than the others. I believe he hid your ship when you first left.”

“But he is still threatening us and them!” Roman argued, and Logan just ignored him. 

“All in all, still be cautious around him, but I do not believe he will harm you unless he deems it absolutely necessary.”

“Oh wonderful, that is so comforting.” Remy rolled his eyes. 

“Okay, that explains them but… What about Neptune and Pluto?” Emile asked.

“They were upset we were fighting and kinda just… left.” Patton rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. He gasped and pulled his hand away quickly, sighing when he realized that had just ruined his still drying nails. Emile laughed and just took his hand back to redo them. 

“We have not heard from or seen Neptune or Pluto in approximately… 4 billion 65 thousand Earth years.” Logan said slowly, “So for now, it’s just us.”

“I hate to be the one to crash this party, but…” Remy looked around, “It’s around the time the rest of the crew gets up, so if you guys don’t want to be seen you should probably head out.”

“We shall be going then, thank you.” Logan nodded, ignoring Patton’s and Roman’s protests to just stay a little longer. Thomas laughed, and after they promised to visit again soon, all three left. 

Emile and Remy left together shortly after, and Thomas realized that Giovanni had disappeared sometime earlier in the conversation without anyone realizing it. Strange. He figured that he probably got bored, or someone else woke up that he wanted to eavesdrop on for gossip. Either way, he wasn’t concerned.

Thomas slowly made his way back to his own room, walking slowly to give himself time to think over all that was said. He did feel a little better that many of his questions had been answered. He also felt worse, considering Saturn’s warnings. That Planet confused him greatly, and he wanted to find out what was going on with him. Somehow he knew he wasn’t truly the bad guy.

He opened his bedroom door quietly and flicked on the light, and jumped.

Joan stood in the middle of the room, arms crossed and a nervous looking Giovanni standing right behind them. They frowned.

“So, are you going to explain what’s been going on?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aftermath of previous chapter's injury, mentions of another


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the chapter I introduce something about Mercury that I had talked about on a tumblr post previously, and I wanna talk about it here first before I get on with this chapter.  
Mercury - the actual literal planet - has no atmosphere. No sound can be heard there (as I mentioned a couple chapters back). So really… Mercury shouldn’t have any reason to speak verbally.  
If I had realized this when I first started writing this story, I would have made him mute from the start, only speaking in his own form of Mercurian (is that a word?) sign language. But I didn’t realize this until around chapter 13.  
So this is what’s going to happen instead.  
Mercury never spoke for the beginning of his life, and didn’t even really have the ability too. The other Planets all learned his sign language too, so he never had a need.   
Until humanity came about.   
Mercury, Mars, and Venus all have visited and talked to humans in the past. They also have the ability to shapeshift into looking like humans (Mars briefly did this in chapter 8), and in general they are just extremely powerful beings (Saturn was able to split an asteroid completely in two by himself with no effort at all). So Mercury gave himself the ability to speak in order to communicate with the humans as they *probably* wouldn’t naturally know Mercurian sign language. Sign language is more natural and his preferred way to communicate, but he still speaks too.  
Again, if I had realized the no atmosphere = no sound to be heard earlier on, I would have made Mercury speak in sign language from the very beginning and be mute. But I didn’t and I was realllyyy upset that I didn’t since that would’ve been awesome to include. So this is the best I can do since it’s all already been written.  
Alright, on to the story!  
(ALSO two warnings for this chapter, please see end notes!!)

Mercury did wake up within only a few days. Though he was dazed and confused, his awakening still sparked joy and relief in everyone. Venus hugged him, as did Earth, Mars, and everyone else. Saturn scolded him for worrying them, but then joined in hugging him too. Mercury was still in pain, but held them back and smiled.   
“What happened back home?” He signed once everyone had had their fill of hugs. Though he was off his home Planet, and sound could be heard, he never spoke. He never really found a need to.   
“Well, you remember the asteroid, right?” Venus asked. Mercury nodded, quickly clarifying that he meant what happened afterwards, “Well, it kinda made a huge impact. It’s been a couple days here and I don’t think it’s safe to go back yet.”  
Though he looked disappointed, Mercury didn’t object and just nodded solemnly. He understood the logic behind staying away a little while longer, but that didn’t mean he liked it. He didn’t do anything more, and the other Planets exchanged worried glances.  
“You’ll be okay,” Uranus was the first to speak, crouching down to where Mercury was sitting, “At least you’re still standing straight! You’ll be all good, when I got hit I was all crazy,” He threw his arms down and did a headstand, and the others laughed - even if they knew it hadn’t done exactly that to Uranus himself, just his planet. He was being goofy, acting as though he wasn’t unconscious for several months and briefly forgot who everyone was. “You’ll be good as new soon!”  
Mercury smiled, though he tried to hide it. “That’s ridiculous and not what happened, and you know it.” He signed.  
“I know nothing!”  
“I won’t argue that.”  
Uranus laughed, not really caring that he had been insulted. At least he got Mercury to act like himself again, and he knew he didn’t really mean it. He never did.  
“You can probably stay here for a bit, until your place calms down,” Venus suggested, “Or at mine if Earth is busy. Earth?” He looked around suddenly, realizing Earth had been silent throughout this conversation, “Earth?”  
“She’s over there,” Neptune said slowly, pointing off into the west. The other Planets followed where he was pointing, immediately concerned.   
Earth stood at the edge of a rock, staring down into the waters below. Her eyes were dull yet hyper focused on the ripples appearing below. She stood stiffly, fists clenched. She seemed frozen in shock, unable to do anything but watch… something, something in the water below.  
“Uh, Earth?” Saturn called out, “Are you alright?” When she didn’t answer, Mars started to walk over to her.   
“Hey Earth, what’s up?” He asked as he approached her. She still didn’t answer, and remained silently staring into the waters below her. “Earth?” He asked again. Earth was normally bubbly and happy, not at all like this. She wasn’t the type of person to fall into strange trances or zone out completely.  
Several moments passed, and no one spoke, or even let themselves breathe. It was quiet all around them aside from the low sound of the hot breeze as it hit against their backs.  
It seemed like an eternity passed before anything happened. Earth blinked once, and it was then that they noticed just how dim her eyes were - not the shining bright white they usually were, but instead a flat gray. She finally turned to face Mars, and glanced over at the rest of the her family too. She looked to each individual Planet, before her eyes landed on Venus. She paused, and then slowly opened her mouth to speak. “I…” She whispered, voice weak and breath catching in her throat. “I…I think I made more.”  
With those words, her eyes shut and she fell to the ground, unconsious.. Mars quickly caught her and looked over to the others, panicked. She was still breathing, but it was shallow, and her hands were shaking. They rushed over to her, all of them, and Pluto helped Mercury over.  
“What’s wrong with her??” Saturn demanded, eyes wide in shock. Mars shook his head, sitting down but still not letting go of Earth. He held her with one arm and gently shook her with the other, hoping for some kind of reaction. Her weak breaths remained steady, but no other reactions were given.  
“What the hell is that?” Jupiter’s voice interrupted their worry, and they all caught sight of what Earth had been staring at earlier. Saturn carefully stood and walked over to him, so he too could get a better look. Venus and Uranus followed.  
Swimming in the water was… Something. Something small and smooth and shiny blue in color. Something that none of them had ever seen before.  
Silence once again swept over them. The thing, the creature, swimming in the water, making small splashes every so often, was the only thing that didn’t get the message.  
It was Venus who spoke first. He took a deep breath, hands shaking ever so slightly.  
“I didn’t… I didn’t know she actually did it…”   
***  
“Giovanni, we need to talk about this,” Thomas stared at the AI who keeps betraying all of his secrets to his friends.   
“Joan said if I told them what was going on then they wouldn’t tell Emile and Remy I’ve been making bets with the rest of the crew on when they’re gonna get together.”  
“You’ve been doing what??”  
“Hey, you guys are boring! I gotta get entertainment somehow!”  
“Not the point here!” Joan interupted, turning to Thomas, “Why didn’t you tell me what was going on? Something as big as this, and you told Giovanni of all people before me?”  
“I didn’t really tell him, he kinda just saw it too…” Thomas sighed, knowing that didn’t help his situation at all. “I wanted to but this just… this is so insane. I didn’t think you or anyone for that matter would believe me.”  
Joan stared at him in exasperation, glaring with arms folded across their chest. Thomas sighed guiltily. That was a complete lie and he knew it. Joan would never have thought that he was crazy - maybe a little sick or something, but not once they knew how serious he was. Joan had been his best friend for so many years, he trusted them more than anyone else on - or off of - Earth. If Joan and Thomas had switched places, they would’ve told him in a heartbeat.  
Thomas shouldn’t have kept this from them.  
“How long has this been going on?” Joan finally asked, “When did you first find out?”  
“Technically when that first asteroid was going to hit, a few months ago,” Thomas admitted, “I didn’t know what it was then but I saw the Planet Saturn out of the corner of my eye, I thought I was imagining it then though.”  
“And then?”  
“Then you got sick and Venus came and healed you.” Thomas said, “Then he came back to visit and Mars, Mercury, and Saturn all came too. They’ve only visited once since then.”  
Giovanni took the next awkward moment of silence to quietly slip away, preferring to eavesdrop without his presence being shown (even if they both knew he was there). But neither Thomas nor Joan spoke after that for a long time, which gave Thomas’ thoughts a chance to run wild.  
Was Joan going to hate him now? Logically speaking, of course not. This was not enough to ruin over a decade of friendship. Maybe they would be mad for a while, but never would they hate him, right? Unless they did. Unless this did ruin everything and the rest of the trip was going to be a literal hell. Was he going to be stuck in a small confined space - a literal space ship - with his ex best friend, who would now hate him, just because he was an idiot who didn’t know how to trust people? Would they have to turn back because of this? Would the Jovian Planets somehow take advantage of this and use it to kill them all?? Wow, this was a mistake.  
Thankfully, Joan spoke and interrupted Thomas’ spiraling thoughts.  
“Well next time I meet a supernatural or mythical creature, you are going to be the last to know,” they joked, and Thomas mentally celebrated. Joan was smiling, that was a good sign, right? “I get it, I get why you didn’t tell me. But seriously, I’m your best friend. Have a little faith next time, deal?”  
Thomas sighed in relief, smiling and rubbing the back of his neck, “Yeah, definitely a deal.”  
“And holy crap, the Planet Venus healed me? Is that why I feel like ten times better than I ever have before? That’s crazy…”  
Thomas laughed, “Yeah, probably.”  
“Am I gonna get superpowers now -”  
“Sorry to interrupt,” Talyn’s voice cut through, and they both turned to see the smaller pilot standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame. “But Remy wants you, Thomas. Requesting Captain’s assistance or whatever. I’d go see what he wants.”   
Thomas nodded, and turned to Joan, “We can talk more later? I swear I’ll explain everything then.” Joan nodded, and the two - well, three, plus Talyn now - walked down to meet Remy.   
They found the tall naturally tanned man staring at a holographic map in front of him, sunglasses in his hand and eyes focused intensely. Once he noticed the three had entered they were back on and he was grinning, “Hey!”  
“Hey Rem, what did you need?” Thomas asked, and Remy ran over to him and grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking his friend and captain excitedly.  
“So we get to decide where we’re going to next now!” He said, “Originally we were just kinda gonna float around and take some cool pictures, but our request from like months ago finally got approved - I mean jeez girl, they take forever - and we actually can go farther and do more now!”  
“Wait for real?” Joan asked, “That’s awesome!”  
Remy nodded, releasing Thomas and picking up his coffee, “It is! Okay, so here are the options! We can explore some more planets and stars and actually land on them, or we can keep heading out farther,” He grinned, “Like, waaayyy farther than originally planned. I vote we try to get closer to Alpha Centauri. I doubt we can actually get there but we can get closer, at least!.”   
“Oh my god yes!” Talyn laughed. “We could get some awesome photos too that way!”  
Thomas now had a huge smile on his face,“I can’t believe it, this is so awesome!” He exclaimed, “We can go that far!? Or actually really land somewhere? This is amazing!”  
“Hell yeah!” Remy grinned, “So Captain, what are we doing? It’s your choice.”  
Thomas stopped, his smile disappearing instantly. Memories of Saturn’s warning flooded his mind as he remembered his words.  
“If you don’t turn back now, you are going to get killed,” The words hissed, “I’m telling you now, if you don’t turn this ship around, you and everyone you love will regret it. You will all be dead within a week, I promise you that.”  
Maybe he didn’t truly mean it? Maybe he was just trying to seem tough? No, if that were true his next reaction would make no sense, when Thomas asked if he was threatening or warning him. Though it was hidden well, he seemed scared for them. There would be no reason for that hidden worry to appear if he was lying. He genuinely did believe that if they kept going, they would all be killed.  
But Mercury, Venus, and Mars wanted them to keep going, right? They wouldn’t let them die. Especially not Mars, Mars seemed to be trying to live out his love of adventure through them. He wouldn’t let their journey end early. They would all defend the ship, right?   
But… did he really want his crew stuck in the middle of a war between such powerful beings? Thomas really didn’t know who was more powerful, Venus, Mercury and Mars, or Uranus and Jupiter. And truthfully he didn’t know which side Saturn would be on either. Did he really want to chance this? Even if Venus, Mercury, and Mars won, there was no way his crew would come out unscathed.  
“Maybe… Give me some time to think it over.” Thomas said, words carefully calculated. “I need to think about it and…”  
He needed to talk to the Planets about it, see what they would say.   
Remy nodded, “Okay, cool, just hurry it up, okay? I need to finalize where we’re heading by like… I don’t know a couple days? Just hurry!”  
“Well that was descriptive,” Joan laughed, “At least give a real time frame.”  
“Ugh fine, like… three days, sound good?”  
Thomas nodded, “Yup, I just need to… talk with some people.” He said, hoping Remy and Joan would get the hint. Talyn still didn’t know, and if Thomas was being honest he was already getting nervous with how fast the amount of people who did know was growing. Nothing against Talyn, obviously, but maybe five people was enough.   
More than enough, if he was being honest.  
“Alright, but hurry! I’m still voting Alpha Centauri, I wanna get some cool photos.” Remy grinned, taking another sip of his coffee. He threw his arm over Thomas’ shoulders, and smiled wide at the two others in the room. “We’re going to Alpha Centauri, bitches!”   
Thomas laughed, “Maybe, Remy. I’ll think about it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warnings: cussing and a character fainting


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two warnings, see end notes

_The beginning was the strangest. _

_ Unlike her mother, Earth started small. Simple cells and bacteria, and later slightly bigger groups of cells. They were alive, but they weren’t killing her. They weren’t going to drain her of her life like what creating her and her siblings had done to Sol. She was fine, Venus had worried for nothing._

_ So she made some more._

_ Small creatures living in the depths of her oceans - she didn’t want anyone to know just yet, better to hide them down there, where no one could see. She never had told Venus that she had gone ahead with her plan, and didn’t plan on telling anyone anytime soon. She couldn’t really communicate with the creatures all that much, she was still too afraid to give up that much power, so they weren’t very intelligent. But she loved them, and she knew they loved her. _

_ And still, she was safe. She wasn’t dying. She let them multiply and made many many more, until they started to grow on their own too. They became new creatures all together, and while she didn’t design them, she encouraged and did her best to protect them. She loved them and they were hers. _

_ They started coming closer to the surface. That was when she started to feel the subtle effects giving away so much life had on her. Spells of dizziness came and her head usually hurt, but she was still fine. It was still worth it. _

_ That was what she told herself as she lay in her brother’s arms, mind fluttering in and out of consciousness. Maybe she had done a bit too much? She wasn’t dying, she was sure of that. She just felt… sick all the time. She was fine, really. She just wouldn’t let the population of the fish and other creatures grow anymore, and it would be perfectly fine. All was good._   
_ “Why the hell didn’t you tell us she was planning on doing this?” An angry voice pulled her from her thoughts, though she still didn’t have the energy to actually open her eyes. That was too much work, and she really didn’t want to face any bright light. The darkness was soothing. It was fine, she would just rest some more. All would be fine. She could figure out who was talking later._

_ “She… She didn’t want me to tell anyone.” A worried voice replied, shaking. Earth tried to remember who it was. Who did she tell? The voice was soft, a higher pitch than the first one, and she could tell it was full of kindness. Who was it? “I didn’t think she was going to do it either, and it was so long ago! I thought that it was so long ago and she hadn’t said anything since, so I just figured she had moved on…”_

_ A sigh was heard and it was silent for several moments, before the first voice began to shout._

_ “Relax?? You seriously want us to calm down and relax? Mercury, she just passed out and we’re overreacting??”_

_ Saturn. It was Saturn who was speaking! Well, that wasn’t all that surprising, he did worry about all of them constantly. He cared a lot, even if he preferred to pretend otherwise. But he really didn’t need to worry right now, she was just a little tired. She would get up in a few minutes. Just after she rested her eyes for a bit longer._

_ “Saturn is right. We need to fix this now.” Earth recognized this voice as Jupiter, her mind becoming clearer with each passing moment. “She will abandon this and she’ll heal, it’ll all be fine.”_

_ "How is she supposed to abandon this?” Another voice said, much closer to her than the other ones. It belonged to whoever was holding her. One of her brothers. “Those creatures are alive, and they’ll keep living and having children. She can’t just undo it.”_

_ “We could kill them-”_

_ “No!” Earth shouted before the thought even registered in her mind. Her eyes flew open and she sat up immediately, scaring everyone - including herself. She grabbed Mar’s arm to steady herself, having gotten up much too fast and seeing spots. Her vision blurred and she tried to focus. Everyone’s eyes were locked on her. _

_ “Earth, you’re okay!” Venus cried, running over and gently putting his arms around her. She hugged him back carefully, not saying anything more. She still felt a little off, but didn’t say anything about it._

_ “Uranus is right.” Jupiter spoke up, “Earth, you’re not safe. This isn’t right.”_

_ “What?” Earth stared at him with wide eyes. Killing the creatures, her children, that was the idea he was talking about, she realized. It was Uranus’ suggestion. “You can’t murder them, they haven’t done anything wrong!”_

_ “Earth, this is hurting you -” Saturn cut in._

_ “No, I’m perfectly fine!” She exclaimed. She quickly rose to her feet to prove her point, but immediately went light headed. She managed not to fall, however, and shoved Mar’s arm away when he attempted to help stablize her. That wouldn’t help her case at all, she had to be fine on her own. “I am fine! I just felt a little sick, that’s all. Unrelated to them.” She nodded firmly once to emphasize this._

_ “No, you’re clearly not.” Mercury signed, stepping closer to her. “Your legs are shaking and you can hardly stand. You’re sweating and your eyes are dull, you are not ‘fine’ at all.”_

_ Earth clenched her jaw, but said nothing. _

_ “Earth… Why did…” Pluto trailed off, not bothering to finish his question. She wondered why he didn’t ask why she did this. Maybe he didn’t think the reason mattered in the end. Maybe he didn’t want to know. Maybe he knew that Earth didn’t even truly know the answer; that was the truth._

_ “You’re going to die like this.” Saturn hissed, fists clenched. “So stop it!” She knew he didn’t mean to be mean, he was just trying to hide his concern. But that didn’t really matter, that didn’t give him the right to be upset. This wasn’t even effecting him! _

_ “It’s none of your business!” She shouted, “It’s not the business of anyone here! It’s between me and them, no one else.” She took a deep breath, her voice going soft. “I think you all should leave.”_

_ “Earth -” _

_ “Neptune, stop. All of you, leave now.” She inhaled deeply, trying to calm herself down before she spoke again. “I want to be alone.” She said, softer this time, much more gentle._

_ Glances were exchanged between all of the Planets, but they all seemed to get the message. One by one, they disappeared or flew away from sight, gone._

_ Only Saturn remained. He stared at the ground for several long moments, before he looked up and stared Earth straight in the eyes._

_ “Please don’t hurt yourself.” He said, and then he vanished too._

_ And Earth was alone._

***

Thomas spent all night tossing and turning in his bed. He couldn’t sleep, his mind was spinning with worries and questions. He had hoped putting on some soft music would calm his racing thoughts, but it seemed to only wake him up even more. He couldn’t fall asleep no matter how hard he tried.

“I need food”, he finally decided at around 2.M. Laying in bed was getting him nowhere, and his stomach had growled several times already. He silently swung his feet over the side of his bed and made his way down to the kitchen. 

The cold air of the kitchen felt nice - that room was always colder than the rest of the ship, though they weren’t quite sure why. Thomas quietly grabbed the handle of the fridge door and opened it. He made a nice meal and sat down at the metal countertop, peacefully eating his food and drinking the hot cup of tea he had made for himself. He smiled; already he felt much calmer, this had been a wonderful idea. That tea had helped him to relax and calmed his thoughts greatly. In a few minutes, he could return to his room and get a couple hours of sleep easily. Maybe this night would be peaceful.

“BOO”

“AHH” Thomas screamed, immediately throwing himself backwards and falling onto the floor. His head hit the floor behind him hard, and he groaned as he rubbed the back of his head. He opened his eyes to see a wide eye Roman standing in front of him.

“I’m sorry!! I didn’’t mean to scare you - well no, I definitely did, but I didn’t know you were gonna do that!!” He offered his hand.

Thomas stared at him cautiously for several long moments. His heart pounded in his chest and that adrenaline rush would stay with him for hours - so much for getting any sleep that night. He carefully grabbed the red Planet’s hand and was hoisted to his feet.

“Jeez Mars… I was trying to get some sleep tonight.” 

“But you were eating,” Roman narrowed his eyes, “Not sleeping.”

“I was getting food and tea because I couldn’t sleep, and then was going back to sleep!” Thomas sighed, “Oh, nevermind. Where’s Venus and Mercury?”

“Patton was hanging out with Logan and Logan said,” Roman stood up straighter and held his hands together, giving his best Mercury impression, “Roman, they are sleeping. It would be rude to wake them up, humans need their rest.”

“Well he was right,” Thomas shook his head, resisting the urge to dramatically sigh another time. Sure, Roman was a Planet and he should probably still be freaking out that he was standing in front of the literal Planet Mars... But he wanted to be in bed. 

Who cares about meeting gods when you could be sleeping?

Roman huffed, and folded his arms across his chest, “Wow, rude much.”

Thomas laughed, then realization struck him. “Hey Mars, can I ask you something?”

“Well first, you don’t need to call me ‘Mars’! We’re friends now because I declared it! I am the Great Prince Roman!”

“Uh alright, Roman, can I ask you something?”

“Absolutely!”

Thomas nodded, and paused for a moment, “Okay, well… I need your advice or opinion on something.” Roman nodded for him to continue. “We got permission to keep heading even farther into the universe, or we could start visiting and exploring the stars and planets around here.”

“Oh?” Roman grinned excitedly, “That’s amazing! So you get to go farther in your adventure? Brilliant!”

Thomas laughed, “Yeah! Some of the crew wants to go try to get closer to Alpha Centauri or some other cool place, but I wanted to get you or Patton or Logan to hear before we decided.”

“Hmmm,” Roman tapped his chin, looking up thoughtfully, “Well, I think you -”

“- Should return to Earth immediately.” Both Thomas and Roman spun around at this, and saw Saturn had showed up out of seemingly nowhere. He sat on the counter off to the side, eyes narrowed and lips pressed shut in a tight frown. Upon noticing Thomas’ shocked face and Roman’s livid expression, he grinned, though it was made more from sarcasm and dark humor than actual happiness. He spoke again.

“There. Your decision has been made. Go home.” His words sent a chill up Thomas’ spine. His expression stiff and his words lacking any emotion, they were darker than his earlier warnings somehow, more dangerous. His piercing white eyes were somber and foreboding. Though the lack of color in all of the Planets’ eyes should have been disturbing to any human, none reached the mysterious look in the ringed Planet’s eyes now. Something was off this time, something cruel and relentless had overtaken his previously vigilant demeanor.

“What are you doing here?” Roman demanded, his jaw clenched. He stared at Saturn, who glared right back. “You clearly aren’t welcomed here. Go back to your friends.”

“Do I look like I care if I’m welcomed or not?” Saturn shot back, pushing himself off of the counter and slowly walking towards the two. His steps were light yet deliberate, and his eyes glowed with anger. He stepped right up to Roman, staring directly at him. Though he was several inches shorter than him, it was intimidating nonetheless, even if Roman would never admit it. “I’ll answer that for you. I couldn’t care less if I tried. I’m not here for a visit.”

“Then why are you here?”

“To give him one last warning,” Saturn switched his attention to the captain, who stepped back slightly. Saturn didn’t move. 

“Go home, human. Stop trying to explore things that weren’t made for you.”

Thomas flinched when Mars put his hand on his shoulder, “No, do go out and explore! Ignore him, you’ll be fine!”

“Oh he’ll be fine?” Saturn said, and laughed, “As if! He’s lucky he’s gotten this many warnings, but I suppose it doesn’t matter. Clearly he’s too idiotic to take any of my warnings seriously.”

“You should leave.” Roman said, voice steady and deep. “You’re the one who should go back home.”

“I’m not -”

“Enough!” Thomas exclaimed. His shout startled both of the Planets, which did help boost his confidence ever so slightly. He needed that. The captain took a deep breath, pushing Roman’s hand off of him and stepping forward, towards Saturn.

“I’m not turning around.” He finally said, “I’m not going to abandon this just because it upsets you and whoever else out there. We aren’t hurting anyone, all we’re doing is exploring. Leave us alone!”

Roman grinned, and Saturn scowled.

Thomas took a deep breath. “I’ve made my decision. We’re doing both. We’re gonna head out farther, towards Alpha Centauri. I know we won’t actually make it there, but we’re gonna epxlore in that direction, and we’re gonna explore all the other stars and planets and comets and everything else along the way.” He bravely stared Saturn in the eyes, “And you can’t stop that. Neither you, nor Jupiter or Uranus.”

Saturn stayed quiet for several long moments, clenched jaw and, if you looked carefully, shaking hands. He was focused, trapped in a swirling storm of thoughts in his mind. Finally, he replied.

“Fine,” He stood up taller, backing away slightly. “Have it your way.”

And with those words, the ship began to shake.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Character dizzy and injured, and Virgil/Saturn is kinda a huge jerk in this chapter. He acts like unsympathetic Virgil (he's not he's just acting like it in this chapter, it'll be explained later)


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1 warning, see end notes

The fear made him sick to his stomach.

Saturn watched as Thomas’ expression twisted into one of alarm and betrayal. He hated this. He hated his reaction. He hated doing this. But he knew he had to. Thanks to Roman and the other two, Thomas wasn’t taking him seriously. He wasn’t listening to his warnings, how else was he supposed to make Thomas understand? How else was he supposed to make Thomas realize that this danger was real? Though he wasn’t acting with ill intentions, Jupiter and Uranus would. This was the only way to keep any of them alive. He had to make them think he was the true villain.

“Saturn!” Roman shouted, face twisting with rage, “Stop this at once!”

Saturn ignored him, the ship continuing to shake. He ignored Thomas’ shout as he fell to the ground. He ignored Giovanni popping up and flashing red as the alarms began to wail. He ignored the sounds of distant screams echoing through the halls. He had to focus, even if doing this was horrifying for him. The scene building around him was chaotic, red washing over everything and distant cries of terror sounding throughout the entire ship. He wasn’t going to let anyone die or truly be injured, but they would be scared. They had to be. Thomas stared up at him as he tried to rise to his feet, but Saturn refused to meet his eyes. Shame covered him. Thomas had asked him if he was threatening him or warning him, and he had now his answer.

So what if they thought he was the bad guy? He might as well use that to his advantage.

A shout snapped him out of his thoughts, and he fell back as he felt Roman run into him. Phasing out, they disappeared through the floor and hurtled into space. Saturn grunted as he regained his balance and righted himself. The sounds that could be heard in the ship vanished, and they were thrust into the silence that covered the expanse of space. Good, Saturn preferred quiet anyhow. 

He looked around at his surroundings and saw that they hadn’t traveled far; the ship was still within their sight, and any human who looked out a window would be able to see them. That was a problem, enough humans knew about them already! The ringed Planet faced Roman, whose eyes glowed bright in anger.

Okay, first things first: get him out of view of the ship.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Roman demanded, holding his hand up and calming the ship, before he returned to signing. Saturn didn’t bother to begin terrorizing them again; he made his point and any more damage would be unnecessary. “I knew it!! I knew you were going to attack them!”

Good. That was what he wanted him to think. If Roman knew that, truthfully, Saturn was only going to scare them, and would never let any member of the ship be injured from that, then he could tell them. Thomas would know. Thomas had to think that they were truly being attacked; after all, it was his job to keep his crew safe. He needed to think their lives were in immediate danger, and then they would turn around. If they feared Saturn’s attacks, they would leave.

Then, they would be safe from the real threat. 

“And what are you gonna do about it?” Saturn taunted, smirking. Roman scowled. Good, that was good. He lifted his hands and continued to sign, “They’re alone out here. You know we don’t want them this far out, and they’re better off dead anyhow.” The lie stung, but he continued. “If you truly cared about them, why do you put them in danger?”

“The only one putting them in danger here is you!” Roman glared, rushing at him. Saturn dodged, but only just barely; Mars was much faster than him. However, Saturn was stronger. He could defeat him easily if he needed to. That had already been proven once, billions of years ago. A distant memory for even them, but it was there.

The only problem was that he didn’t want to. Fighting was not his goal. If he did defeat him, then what? Mars would expect him to attack and kill the humans if he won. If he didn’t, then he might figure out the truth… Okay, that was doubtful, but if he recounted the story to Mercury then his plan would definitely be discovered. Or maybe Mars would surprise him and figure it out, that Planet was unpredictable sometimes. It didn’t really matter who would be the one to actually figure it out... If Mars was defeated then his plan was ruined. Thomas would find out why he was actually scaring them, and they would gain a false sense of security. If he won and did actually hurt them… well that would have just made all of this pointless.

He couldn’t win.

Dodging Roman’s next attack, he flew below the ships. Roman followed him. They were out of sight of the humans now… Perfect. He turned back to face him.

“I’ll leave them alone when they return home!” Saturn signed, ignoring Roman’s disgust at the suggestion. Provoke him, let him think there’s a reason for you to run. You can’t really fight. “I’ll sweeten the deal for you, I’ll even help ensure they get home safely. How’s that?”

“Or I can just make sure you never touch them again!” Roman clenched his jaw and rose up higher, breathing deeply “You’re going to leave them alone!”

Okay, he was starting to get really angry now. Perfect! Time to retreat.

“Fine, good luck with that.” Saturn grinned; be ominious and make him think he would return later, that was the plan. “But you may just regret it…” He started to disappear. He would now go home, satisified that his plan worked. Thomas was scared and would want to leave. He and the rest of the ship would be safe, his plan really worked! This was a successful day.

Or, it should have been… Before he could disappear fully, Roman had flown over and grabbed his wrist harshly. Saturn looked at him in shock; he hadn’t expected that.

“Oh no, you aren’t leaving that easily.” Roman frowned, signing with the hand not being used to detain Saturn. Before the ringed Planet could react, Roman pulled him away from sight, and the two vanished.

Moments later, they reappeared. Saturn blinked, and looked around at his surroundings. They were closer to home, but not quite there - the Planets could, in the closest human term available, teleport, but not that far. It would take too much energy to get all the way back home to the Solar System in one try, especially since Saturn wasn’t cooperating and Roman was doing all of the work.

“What was that about?” Saturn demanded after he tore his wrist back, and Roman glared. “I was leaving, was that not what you wanted?”

“No, I want you to leave them alone.”

“I was literally leaving.”

“I mean permanently!”

“Ha!” Saturn mocked, scoffing. “Not today Princey.” He turned around to leave, only to feel himself being pulled back again. He faced Roman, who held his wrist uncomfortably tight… again. What was he trying to prove? He knew Saturn was stronger. Didn’t he realize he wouldn’t really be able to keep him from leaving? Didn’t he realize that at any moment, Saturn could easily break free from his grasp? What was he trying to accomplish here? 

“You really wanna try to stop me from leaving?” Saturn raised one eyebrow, “I’ve beaten you once already, and I’m prepared to do it again.”

“Then why haven’t you?” Roman asked, frowning. Oh crap, he was thinking. Most of the time, Roman was a complete moron, and Saturn didn’t generally have to worry about him. But on the rare occasion that he wanted to figure something out, he could and he would. It was just a matter of time.

Saturn didn’t answer.

“Why didn’t you just beat me again and kill them? If you think you easily could have, why didn’t you?” Roman demanded, grip tightening on his wrist. “You shook the ship, but you didn’t even try to again after I stopped it.”

Well, this wasn’t the plan. Saturn focused hard, forcing himself to keep a neutral face. He didn’t want to give away anymore than he already had, so what to do now? 

He could just refuse to answer and leave, but that was a last resort. It would surely confirm Mar’s suspicions. He could go back and attack the humans, but that was what he had been trying to prevent this whole time, so that would be counterproductive. What was he supposed to do? 

Threats. Make him regret asking that.

“Would you rather me attack them?” Saturn signed, finally yanking his wrist away from the other, “Because I definitely can and I will. Watch me.”

Something sparked in Roman’s eye, and instantly Saturn regretted his decision. He had one and only one mission, and he was about to fail, all because of one stupid mistake. He underestimated Mars. He underestiminated him, and that would be his downfall. Three simple words left the Red Planet’s mouth, and with them tumbled down every hope Saturn had of fixing this.

“Then do it.”

Neither moved for several long moments. All was still as both held their breaths, staring in horror and confusion at the other. Though stars and planets distantly moved across the horizon, neither noticed. All movement faded from their minds, and they were trapped in space and time. The clock seemed to stop, and this moment would last a lifetime.

Time began again as realization struck Roman, his eyes widening as the intensity of his gazed vanished. He stared, mouth parting in shock.

“You aren’t going to, are you?” he signed, hands moving gently. The anger was gone.

Saturn fled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Near death scenario


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two warnings, see end notes

What was the point of all of this?

Saturn shrank back, pushing himself deeper into the storms of his home, rapid winds piercing through him. The chaos reflected the tornado of thoughts in his mind perfectly. He wanted to scream, he wanted to shout, but he was trapped in his own mind. Why was this happening?

“It’s my choice, Saturn.” The words of Earth rang through his mind, vivid and bright. Though they were millions of years in the past, they were not dulled by the course of time. “That’s why.”

“That’s not good enough!” Saturn shouted in the present, the exact same words that he had said to her all those years ago. She knew creating life was going to kill her then, and it had. She knew this, yet she had still persisted in this horrifying quest. What was the point?

Flashes of her smiling, tear stained face were engraved in Saturn’s mind, never to leave. The memories were stronger than any stone, ever present and never changing. Over the billions of years of their lives, none of the Planets had remained the same; they changed and changed and changed. They were almost completely unrecognizeable from their past selves at this point, both in body and in mind. But Earth’s smile and her saddened eyes would remain everlasting. They could not rid themselves of it.

“No!” The once desperate cries of Jupiter rang through his mind, and Saturn was brought back even farther in history, when Jupiter was once gentle and soft spoken and young. This was long before the time of Earth, long before the time of any of the other Planets. This was a time when their home was small, and consisted only of a small family of three.

Before that, Jupiter had been alone for a long time, and it was only him and his mother. He was the closest to her, and always had been. He longed to be near her, so much in fact that it pulled his entire home closer and closer to her. This period of Planetary migration reeked chaos in the young Solar system, and Sol knew it wasn’t right that he was alone.

Saturn blinked, clearing his eyes of tears as more memories came back to him, memories of his birth. When he was born, Jupiter latched onto him immediately. They were brothers and close as could be. It had calmed Jupiter, and he allowed his home to return to its natural orbit. For a short time, that was all they knew, and their small family was happy. At that point, they had thought it would last forever. But they were naive children then… They hadn’t even considered the pain that would be to come.

“You’re dying.” Jupiter realized one day, eyes wide as he watched his mother, once so swift and clever. She was never one to shy away from any challenge, loud with her words and unafraid. But as the young Jupiter stared at her now, he realized that had changed. Her words were too soft spoken, her eyes too gentle. She was fading. This wasn’t the same woman he once knew. “Why are you dying?!”

Saturn’s fists clenched tightly, and he squeezed his eyes shut. Why were the memories flooding back? Why now? Why not any other time?

He didn’t think Jupiter ever got his answer directly from Sol. She just left, and left behind their new family. She never got to know her other children; sure, she met Uranus and Neptune, and saw the others, but she never got to know them. She only knew Saturn and Jupiter. She was too sick to truly join the family that she had created. She was gone quicker than they could even realize.

It scarred them both , but Saturn knew it affected Jupiter much more. He wasn’t as loud anymore, he was no longer carefree. But… He was still Jupiter, just quieter. He took care of those she left behind. It was the only way he could cope, and he did truly love them.

Saturn took deep breaths in, trying to calm down and bring himself back to the present. Back to now, when Mars had ruined everything, and it would cause the death of all the humans aboard. Jupiter and Uranus would kill the crew, and there was nothing Saturn could do about it. He felt just as helpful as Jupiter once did.

“Earth, I’m begging you… Please,” Jupiter had whispered, staring at a small creature crawling along the dirt. He looked up and met his sister’s eyes. It was horrifying. They were dull, and looked exactly like his mother’s had all those years ago. Earth was weak, as she had been so many billions of years ago. He was going to have to face it all over again. “Please don’t do this.”

But she did. As soon as the species that would later become the humans had appeared, she was dead. Gone forever.

Truthfully, Saturn knew it wasn’t just the fault of the humans, or any similar species, and he was sure Jupiter did too. Her life had started to go the minute the first bacteria appeared, back when there were only cells. But it was humanity and their ancestors that had finished her off, so they got the blame. 

They took his sister. So Jupiter would take their lives. 

Saturn inhaled, rising out of the clouds slowly. He looked towards Earth. Jupiter had planned on killing every living thing on the planet if it meant the humans would be gone, and he was going to do it back in the very beginning. He just hadn’t planned on one little thing… 

“You can’t kill them!” Venus shouted, eyes widening in shock. “You can’t just murder them!” 

“And why not?” Jupiter demanded. Normally, Venus was soft spoken and gentle, like Earth had been. But today, the Planet stood his ground.

“They didn’t do anything wrong, Jupiter. They are innocent, they didn’t even know she existed.”

Jupiter had only scoffed, and left. At that point, Venus figured the conversation was over. It was just a simple disagreement, one that would soon be forgotten by everyone. In reality it would be much more. Venus never would have been able to imagine what that simple exchange would lead to.

Saturn had been with Uranus and Mars at the time. Now, it seemed hard to believe, but those two used to be as close as could be. They were best friends and often joked that they were twins, even if there was a hundred million years in between them. It was a rare sight to ever see them apart. Saturn had been sitting on the surface of Mars’ home, laughing as the two put on some stupid skit they had thought up on the spot. It was a nice distraction for all three of them.

Jupiter stormed up to them, angry. He ranted to the three about what Venus had just said, and Saturn instantly agreed with him. Uranus quickly did too, but Mars remained quiet.

“Kill them?” He had asked quietly, an odd shift from his usual carefree tone. It was the strangest sound to Saturn, and he could still hear it perfectly in his mind, so many years later. It was a mix of confusion, of anger, and a hint of betrayal, all hidden under a thin layer of sadness. “You want to kill them?”

Jupiter had confirmed this, and Mars frowned. His quiet then shattered as he shouted.

“She gave her life because she loved them so much, and you want to kill them?!”

That was the moment that changed it all. The red Planet stormed off after this, leaving the three alone. He retreated to Mercury’s home, where he recapped the events to his friend. Mercury agreed with Mars, stating their beliefs were illogical. Word got out to the remaining Planets, Neptune and Pluto, but they didn’t immediately take a side. 

It was tense for a long time. Everytime two Planets met, that was all that was on their minds, but no one spoke of the issue. It became taboo, and they pretended it wasn’t happening. You can’t fight about what isn’t there, right? That was their logic, and so this lasted for many years.

Jupiter broke this tension. He decided that waiting was pointless, and that it didn’t matter what the others said… Humans deserved to die. They couldn’t keep living, walking on the same ground where she had once stood. It wasn’t fair. 

So he prepared to use all his power to throw a coming meteor at them. He didn’t tell anyone, not even those who were on his side. Though he was upset at the time, Saturn now understood; he knew what it was like to not be able to trust anyone. 

But Mercury had seen it just in time, and he, Mars, and Venus all stopped it. That was the day all hell broke loose.

“You are insane!” Venus shouted, the angriest he’d ever been. “You would have killed not only all of the humans, but every other animal alive!”

“Maybe that was the point.” Jupiter hissed, “Maybe I don’t regret it. Maybe I’ll do it again, and maybe, next time it will work.”

“You will do no such thing!” Mars had butted in, eyes glowing with rage. He turned to face Uranus, anger mixing with hurt, “You’re really okay with this???”

“They killed Earth,” was the only reply he got. Mars scowled.

“And that kind of action would have destroyed her entire home too.” Mercury signed, “The planet itself would be gone. Are you really so angry you would rid us of that too? We would have nothing of her left. Even mother left us the sun.”

Saturn, even then, had known that mentioning Sol was a horrible decision, but it was too late. That was the last straw, and Jupiter screamed at them.

“Fine! Praise those murderers for all I care, but I will never.” He shouted, “And even if it takes me the rest of my life, I swear to you, I will make them pay.You cannot protect them forever.”

“And we’ll make sure you never do.” Venus said, teeth clenched and tears in the corners of his eyes. He looked at the others around him, “All of us will.”

Saturn remembered this moment as clear as day. That was when he spoke up, “No, we won’t.” He said, softly. His eyes met Venus’, whose went wide in shock. “I will not defend them.” 

“Me neither.” Uranus said, much louder than him. He walked over to Jupiter, and Saturn followed. The three stood firm. Even today, Saturn could swear he saw a hint of a relieved smile across Jupiter’s face.

Mars and Mercury did the same, and stood by Venus. The Divide had started, but Neptune and Pluto remained still. 

“Are you coming?” Venus had asked them, assuming they would be with him. But they didn’t answer. They stood quietly, Neptune staring at them with a blank face, and Pluto’s head shaking in horror. 

“This is wrong.” Neptune whispered, shaking his head no as well. Neither of them offered any more explanation than that. He and Pluto simply turned, and vanished.

Saturn bit his lip. None of them had seen those two since that day, not even once. Somedays he doubted they ever would again… He had considered searching for them, but never had. Afterall, he knew Mars had gone out several times. Once he hadn’t returned for the equivalent of half a century on his home. If Mars, the lover of advantures, couldn’t find them, they weren’t going to be found.

All he could hope was that one day, they would want to be.

“Saturn!” Saturn was shaken from his thoughts. This shout was too vivid to be a memory; it was real. He immediately dropped back into the cover of his clouds, hidden from sight. He was still a mess, with a tear stained face and breathless from his panic. He didn’t exactly want to be seen right now.

“Saturn, where are you?” Even through the noise of his storms, the voice was clear. It was Venus. Mars must have told him what had happened. Saturn did not want to see him yet. For one, he was too prideful to face him after years of swearing he wanted the humans dead just as bad as Jupiter and Uranus. For another, he just didn’t want to see anyone when he was like this. He needed to be alone for a bit longer.

“Please, Saturn… We need you!” That was strange, since when did any of them need him? They hadn’t asked for his help since before the Divide. Maybe it was a trick, or him being overdramatic. It was probably nothing, Saturn thought, but that all changed with Patton’s next words.

“The humans are dying.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Panic, flashbacks of death


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Four warnings, see end notes

“Saturn is gonna kill us. This was a horrible plan.”

Jupiter grinned, “Maybe, but it worked didn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Uranus agreed, staring at the ship, floating aimlessly through space. The power was out, and only the emergency generator still worked. It was only a matter of time now. Within a few hours, the last of their oxygen would be gone, and the humans would no longer be an issue.

The plan was simple. Jupiter and Uranus knew how Saturn really felt about the humans, even if he would claim otherwise. They weren’t mad - well, actually they were. But not so much at Saturn. It was humanity’s fault. They were deceptive and manipulative and convinced so many Planets of their innocence. If it had worked against Mars, Venus, and even Mercury, it’s no surprise it worked against Saturn too.

It was sad, but both knew they couldn’t dwell on it. Jupiter created a plan quickly. FIrst, he told Saturn it was his job to keep the humans from going farther. 

“Well, if you want them to live, you’ll figure it out.” Jupiter had said, “Do you understand?”

Saturn stared at him for several long seconds, and Jupiter’s heart twisted. He saw the betrayal in his eyes, and he had never wanted to be the cause of it. Never. He knew Saturn was the first to comfort him all those years ago, after their mother’s death. He knew Saturn was the first to be there when Earth’s death brought him to his knees. He knew that Saturn was always the one he could count on to be there for him.

And now, Jupiter had to forsake him.

“Loud and clear.” Saturn’s voice came out in a monotone. No emotion present, before he vanished into the deep expanse of the universe. It took all Jupiter had within him not to go after him.

“... You sure this is gonna work?” Uranus had asked several seconds later, “I mean, if it doesn’t… He’s not gonna be happy.”

“It will.” Jupiter had promised. “It has to.” They had to make Saturn do this, they had to put him into a compromising position where his true feelings would be revealed to Mars, Mercury, and Venus. Saturn was stubborn, and would flee if he was found out. He would be gone for a long enough time for Uranus and Jupiter to finish the humans off without a pointless fight breaking out between the three.

Staring at the darkened ship now, Jupiter knew he was right. Soon, this would all be over. Soon, Saturn would come home. 

Then, it would all be worth it.

***

The lights were blinding. The alarms were deafening. Screams echoed across the halls. Panic overtook all aboard.

Thomas kicked himself off the doorway, pushing himself down the hallway. The ship’s artificial gravity had been turned off, as had everything else declared non essential to life. Whether that was a blessing or a curse was still to be determined; right now Thomas had only one goal in mind: He had to get downstairs as quickly as he could. Down there, they had the cryosleep chambers.

They were made of the strongest materials found on Earth, and had been specially designed to power themselves for centuries. If the ship failed, then that was their only hope. They were the emergency back up, made for events just like the one being faced now. He had to get there.

Grabbing ahold of a pipe on the corner, he swung himself towards the stairs and continued downwards. The alarms made his ears ring, but he knew they would soon turn off. They took up energy too, and had been programmed to only last for several minutes in the case of a horrible emergency like this. The only technology that would remain online would be the lights and the oxygen generators.

“Well maybe you should’ve listened to that one Planet’s warnings, you ever think about that? Huh?” Giovanni’s voice read out Thomas’ thoughts, and the captain suddenly found himself missing the AI’s snarky comments. They could be pretty annoying and distracting, but they were also comforting. He would give anything for his friend to come back online again.

Thomas reached the door just before the alarms silenced themselves. He swung the door open and breathed out a sigh of relief; it looked like the rest of his crew had already made it.

“Thomas!” Joan flew towards their friend as soon as he got in, throwing themself at him in a tight hug. Thomas hugged back, afraid this would be the last chance he ever got. “God, you got me worried. Don’t do that again!”

Thomas laughed, though it was only out of stress. “Okay, I promise.” He released his friend, and scanned the crowd. Everyone was there, and Emile was helping other members get into the chambers as they spoke. Some were already filled - those people hadn’t ever awakened since the journey had begun on Earth - but that was okay, they had enough made for everyone, plus a few extra. They would be okay.

“Thomas, get over here, I need to talk to you.” Remy’s words interrupted Thomas’ thoughts. The navigator grabbed his friend’s arm and pulled him off with him before he got a chance to reply, so there wasn’t much of a choice there. Thomas went with him quickly, and they stopped in the corner of the room.

“Was this Jupiter and Uranus?” Remy whispered harshly, “Because if it is - where the hell are the other Planets?? What happened to ‘keep going, we’ll protect you!’”

Thomas shook his head, “I have no idea, Rem… Mars was here earlier, and so was Saturn. Saturn told me to go back home again and I told him no! That was when the ship first began to shake…” He looked at Remy sadly, “We were wrong. This was him. He was never on our side.”

Remy clenched his teeth, “Fuck.”

“Guys!” Emile shouted, and the two looked over to him. Joan waved to them, slipping into their own chamber. “We gotta go, come on!”

Thomas nodded, and the two pushed off the wall and headed over towards Emile. Joan’s chamber closed soon after they mumbled out a quick, “Don’t wake me up until this problem is over,” and Emile helped Remy in next. It took a bit longer than Joan’s had, since the two seemed to make even the long silence dramatic and romantic. Thomas smiled softly, partially grateful that Giovanni wasn’t there to shout at the two to ‘just kiss already!’ as they stared at each other lovingly before Remy’s chamber was firmly shut. The moment would probably have been ruined.

“Ready, Thomas?” Emile asked, smiling gently once Remy was frozen. Thomas took a moment to look at him, and suddenly realized how tired he looked. There were subtle tear stains on his cheeks, and his eyes were bloodshot. A twitch of his hand showed Thomas just how worried the doctor was, even if he wasn’t going to show it. He knew that Emile never wanted anyone else to worry about him.

Emile Picani was strong, but he didn’t need to be strong enough for both of them.

“You get in next, Emile.” Thomas decided, putting his hand on his friend’s shoulder. Emile started to object, but Thomas continued, “I can do it for myself, I know how to. And I’m the captain anyways so… this is an order.”

Emile smiled, reaching up and pulling him into a tight hug. The fact that he didn’t take another moment to protest made Thomas glad that he chose this. His friend buried his head into his shoulder, and Thomas felt the fabric grow wet with tears. 

“Thank you.” Emile’s voice was soft, emotion seeping out of it as easily as he let his own tears fall. His words were simple, but his tone carried more relief than a thousand blank “thank you”s ever could.

Emile pulled away then, and stared at Thomas, more serious than he’d ever looked before. “Promise me you aren’t going to try to play the hero. Get to sleep and let us all stay safe, okay? When the rescue signal reaches Earth and they come get us, you need to be on that ship, okay?” 

Thomas nodded solemnly. Satisfied with that promise, Emile climbed into his chamber and shut his eyes slowly, frost creeping up until it completely covered the inside of the glass. He disappeared into unconsciousness.

The ship was dark and quiet now, and the only sound to be heard was Thomas’ own breathing. The alarms had long since been silenced, and the lights were dim and flickering on and off. All was abandoned. Thomas inhaled deeply, trying to pull the everfleeting amount of oxygen in the air deep into his lungs. 

He knew this could be his last time doing so. The ship could be destroyed, or lost. The emergency signals would stay on for many years, but what if that wasn’t long enough? What if they were never found? What if they were lost forever?

In theory, the Planets would be able to save them. But they were still nowhere to be found. Thomas didn’t have much hope in them. So far, their promises had turned out to be lies… well, most of them had. Saturn’s words were the only ones that had come true.

Thomas had no bigger regret than not listening to him.

He looked around the room for one last time, wishing that it had a window. That would have been nice. The universe was beautiful, splashes of purples and pinks and blues swirled together to create entire galaxies, stars speckling the background and flashing brightly, while light passed through the expanse in amazingly powerful waves. The mystery of what was just waiting to be discovered was the only thing that rivalled the physical beauty. Moons were full of geysers, planets were filled with rocky mountains and gorgeous lakes, and stars shined like the heavens. These great mysteries were what drove him to work hard, to truly escape the confines of gravity and explore the great expanse of space.

If he could have one last wish, it would be to see that beauty just one last time.

Thomas shook his head, clearing his thoughts. He needed to go; the clock was ticking. He grabbed a hold of the handle on Emile’s chamber, beginning to push himself over to his own. But he stopped. He took a moment to stop and look throught the clear lid that was now covering his friend, hiding him from the horror of the present. He looked so peaceful, and the tiredness had left him. There was no stress to be seen, and Thomas was grateful for this; being stuck in a single moment of heaven was bliss, but there was no worse fate for someone than to be stuck in hell for the eternity that was a single second.

Pleased that Emile was safe, Thomas continued to check on the others. He looked across the room, looking into the chambers one by one and meeting the closed eyes of each of his friends. Remy, Joan, Talyn, they were all there, and so was everyone else in the crew. They shared the same peaceful look the doctor had, and Thomas smiled. They were okay. He had to believe they would be okay. They would wake up. They would be safe. They had to be. 

With those assurances, Thomas pressed on. He took a hold of the top of his own chamber, and began to pull. It opened silently and easily, and a small light in the back lit up a light green as it did so. It was time.

Thomas reached out to pull himself into the chamber, but his hand froze. He couldn’t move any farther. He tried to open his mouth to speak, but found it had frozen shut too. He felt the impulse to take a deep breath, instincts screaming at him to quicken his breathing, but he didn’t. He couldn’t comprehend why his body was disobeying orders, but his breathing began to slow instead. Was he not getting enough oxygen? Was there something in the air? He wasn’t in the cryosleep chamber yet, so why on Earth was he paralyzed? What was happening? His mind spun with questions as his body froze, but soon the thoughts began to slow too. A cloud seemed to cover his brain and block out any worries he had. He couldn’t think. 

He felt his eyelids grow heavy, and could hardly hold them open. Not that it mattered; by now he was past the point of thinking. He was past the point of caring. What was he even trying to do again? 

As his mind dimmed, he focused on the one thing he could see as his eyes slowly fluttered shut. The green light, glowing ever brightly in the machine he was staring at. Hey, wasn’t he supposed to be inside that thing? Oh well, it probably didn’t really matter anyways. Sleep was sleep, and all he longed for was the peace that was found in that darkness.

The green light blinked on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fainting, panic, swearing, near death scenario


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Six warnings, see end notes
> 
> We're almost to the end guys, I'm so excited. This is a huge chapter and where it all unfolds, this chapter and the next. I've spent the longest on this chapter than any before and, well... Here you guys go, I hope you enjoy!

“Thomas,” A faded voice called out in the darkness, full of emotion. Was it worry, maybe? Thomas didn’t know; he just knew it was interrupting his sleep.

“Thomas, you need to get up.” The voice called out to him again, and Thomas clung desperately to the silence. He wasn’t thinking clearly, and all he knew was that the void he was in was warm and comforting. He wouldn’t mind it much if he never left, he decided, and that voice was trying to prevent that. If he could just resist the pull of consciousness for a few more moments, surely the voice would stop. Then, he could rest. Then, the peace would resume.

“He’s not waking up!” The voice said, but this time it wasn’t to Thomas. Who was the voice speaking to? There shouldn’t be anyone out there, everyone should be in their chambers. Maybe the voice was dillusional, and that could be a problem, one that could easily be avoided by falling deeper into unconsciousness. Why should he listen to some formless voice who was obviously hallucinating that they could talk to people who weren’t there? He didn’t even know who they were, anyways. He had no reason to trust them. Really, he was better off just sleeping. The voice could talk to no one by themselves. It would be fine. With this assurance, Thomas let himself fall deeper into oblivion.

But something stopped him. If everyone was in their chambers, who was the voice then? The voice was someone too. Why weren’t they in cryosleep? Thomas’ mind finally started to work, and he realized the flaw in his initial logic; if no one was there, then the voice shouldn’t be either. Either he was the one who was hallucinating, or one of his friends was in trouble. Or if there really were multiple people out there, many friends were in trouble! He couldn’t just sit there while they were in danger of dying, or he would be failing his job as not only his crew’s captain, but as their friend. He had to wake up.

Finally resisting the gravity of the darkness, Thomas slowly forced his eyes open. Blinding light pierced his sight, but he endured it and let his vision come into focus. A blurry face was above him, and he became vaguely aware of a cold, yet soft hand on his shoulder. He blinked. The face came into focus as the glowing, pale blue one of Giovanni.

“Oh good, you’re awake.” His friend sighed deeply in relief, “I wasn’t worried or anything, but fixing the ship without you would have been a little difficult. That’s it. I still could’ve done it by myself though, I wasn’t worried at all.”

“Uh huh,” Thomas mumbled, reaching up and grabbing the hand on his shoulder, “Sure you weren-” He froze, eyes widening as he realized what was happening. Giovanni’s hand was touching him. He was touching Giovanni’s hand. The AI who was only a hologram. He stared up at his friend in shock, who was grinning widely.

“How- what... Giovanni??” Thomas asked, unable to form any coherent sentences. He looked around, realizing only a few dim lights remained on. All non-essential tech should have been turned off, including the AI. “How are you here?? How are you online??”

“I’m not!” Giovanni’s grin never faltered, and Thomas finally noticed the three figures behind him. One stepped forward, clearing his throat.

“We decided we could use some assistance if we wanted to eventually ever be able to repair the ship properly,” Logan said, smiling softly, “Giovanni seemed to be the most knowledgable in that area. We were just going to try to put him back online, but Roman seems to really like giving some of his life force to human technology.”

“I haven’t done it since Curiousity! That was nearly 500 years ago, it’s been a while!” Roman defended, and Patton laughed. He turned to Thomas, “So anyways, I decided it would be a lot more fun in the long run to just give him some actual life. So… Yeah! He’s really alive now, and not attached to the ship like before. Isn’t that awesome?!”

“Oh my gosh…” Thomas stared at Giovanni in complete shock, who still looked to be in a state of utter amazement. Now Thomas realized why he still hadn’t removed his hand from his shoulder; this was the first time he could ever truly feel anything. He immediately reached out his arms and pulled Giovanni into a tight hug, smiling too. They ignored Patton’s ‘AWWWWW’, both beaming.

“Oh… So is this why you’re always hugging everyone?” Giovanni muttered, “I kinda thought it was some weird, inferior human thing before but -” Thomas laughed, feeling his friend hug him tighter. “I think I get it now.”

“I can’t believe this, oh my god,” Thomas shook his head, still embracing Giovanni, “You’re alive?! This is insane, and… just…” Giovanni’s estatic smile never left his face, and he hugged him tighter.

“As heartwarming as this is,” Logan said after several moments, “I should remind you that the ship’s oxygen is running out, and Thomas will die if we don’t do something quick.” He frowned, “And possibly Giovanni too, though I’m not entirely sure.”

Giovanni reluctantly stopped hugging Thomas, though he now kept his hand on Thomas’ shoulder. Well, Thomas guessed his friend probably had the worst case of touch starvation known to mankind (or computer kind?). That probably wouldn’t end anytime soon. Thomas didn’t mind.  
“Wait, what happened to-” Thomas stopped as he stared around the room in shock. Every unoccupied chamber had been shattered and destroyed, completely unusable. Glass lay strewn across the floor, cut wires surrounding them. He immediately looked over to Joan’s chamber, and breathed out a sigh of relief when he realized his friends’ chambers were all still safe. They were okay.

But he wouldn’t be. There were none left for him.

“Uranus came here,” Patton explained slowly, and Thomas saw how Roman clenched his jaw and formed a tight fist when the Planet was mentioned. “He paralyzed you, put you into a deep sleep, and then destroyed all the remaining chambers. He didn’t touch the others for some reason…” 

“It was probably his own plan, not Jupiter’s,” Roman muttered, “He thought it would be funny, the captain who wouldn’t turn back being the first one to die, but all alone. If he wanted to he could’ve made sure you never woke up. He wanted you to see that.”

“Oh great…” Thomas sighed, “Well, now we know what happened. So why don’t you guys just fix the ship now?”

“We’re trying, but-”

“You guys were right,” A new voice said, “They’re somehow blocking all of us from accessing any part of the ship's mainframe, and preventing us from repairing any of the electricity or oxygen generators too.”

Saturn stood in the doorway, and Thomas stood up. He clenched his fists in anger, and began to shout.

“You!” He exclaimed, pointing, “You did this!! Why?!”

Saturn immediately went on the defensive and, for some inexplicable reason, hissed at the captain. Just before Thomas could reply, Roman interrupted, standing in between the two.

“Thomas, it wasn’t him.”

“It wasn’t him?” Thomas demanded, “Last I saw you, you were swearing he was going to attack us! Then he did, and you left to attack him, and not even thirty minutes later the ship is on lockdown and we’re all about to die! What do you mean this wasn’t him?!”

“Okay yeah, that first shaking of the ship was Saturn, but not all this. This was Jupiter and Uranus. Saturn… he was just trying to scare you…” Roman looked over to the ringed Planet and smiled sadly, and Thomas wondered what heartfelt moment he had missed, “He wasn’t going to hurt you. He was trying to make you turn back so this wouldn’t happen. He was just scared.”

Thomas looked over to Patton and Logan, who seemed to agree with his story. Patton was smiling proudly at Roman, while Logan kept his neutral expression. Even so, he couldn’t hide the pride in his eyes; he was pleased too. The story was true.

It was quiet for several long moments, and Saturn huffed, tired of this warm accepting atmosphere that had suddenly appeared. “Yeah, whatever Prince Underarm Stink. Let’s… Let’s just focus on the actual problem here.” Despite his harsh words, it was clear his tone was much gentler than normal, and a hint of a smile sat on his lips.

Thomas paused, and sighed, “Okay fine… But what happened to you guys swearing to protect us?”

“It was their plan to use me to distract Roman, and Patton and Logan were already pretty far away.” Saturn explained, “We got here as fast as we could. But do you want to hear us explaining all this until you die, or do you want to do something so everyone on this ship isn’t killed within the hour?”

“Oh, right…”

“So, what’s the plan?” Patton asked, looking to Logan, who paused and thought for several moments.

“Whatever we do, it needs to be final.” He finally said, looking around the room and meeting each individual’s eyes one by one, “This has gone on long enough. If they don’t succeed today, they’ll just try again tomorrow. This will last another millennia or likely double or triple that. More lives will be lost.”

Roman nodded, “You’re right - for once.” He ignored Logan’s glare and continued, “This needs to be the final battle, one that will end this feud for good.” He stared at Thomas and Giovanni, and chuckled, “You two get to witness a battle of the gods, are you ready?”

“Roman I swear to all that exists if you don’t stop saying that we are gods-”

“They’re ready!” Roman announced, triumphantly interrupting Logan, who literally facepalmed. Thomas laughed, grateful for a short break for humor before the fight of their lives went down. He knew that by the end of this, they really all could be dead. Every single human being on this ship could be gone, and even Giovanni. Perhaps the ship itself would be annihilated. The Planets would probably stay alive, but Thomas wasn’t willing to bet on it. They were going against other Planets equally as powerful as themselves, so who knew what could happen?

He didn’t have much time to think about it. The ship began to shake again, and he noticed with a start that the air suddenly went much colder. Thomas pulled his jacket tightly around himself, and watched the Planet’s expressions grow dark.

“We should probably go,” Saturn said softly, “We should go meet them.”

“But what if they kill Thomas and Giovanni?” Roman asked worriedly, “We can’t just leave them alone-”

“I’ll stay.” Patton spoke up, walking over to the two, putting a hand on each of their shoulders, “You guys go meet them. Take the fight away from here, I’ll come if you guys need backup.” Before Roman could object, he shook his head, “We’ll be fine, and I’ll let you guys know if we need help. They’ll probably focus on you guys anyways.”

“But-”

“Thank you Patton.” Logan interupted Roman, knowing this argument couldn’t last long. The clock was ticking. “We’ll see you guys soon.”

Thomas watched as the three Planets stayed still for several long seconds, waiting in hesitation. Were they afraid? That fear wasn’t exactly the most comforting thing to see, but for the first time, Thomas realized how… human they were. They were scared, and ready to fight anyways. They were afraid to lose each other. Staring sadly at one another, this was their own silent form of goodbye, one that they hoped would be a temporary one. But they all knew it could be their last. They were preparing to battle, for him and his crew. No one had told them to, they wanted to by themselves. 

If these beings were the closest equivelant to gods they had, then humanity should count themselves lucky.

“Good luck.” Thomas said softly, watching as they finally left. The door was shut, safely sealing the room off completely from the rest of the ship. He looked to Patton, whose eyes lingered on the door long after they were gone, waiting for his family to return. Thomas looked down, smiling sadly to himself and whispering softly.

“Thank you.”

*** 

“So, what made you change your mind?” 

“What?” Saturn looked at Roman in confusion as they walked, and the other Planet smirked.

“Don’t try to tell me you’ve always liked humans. We were there when you first joined Jupiter; you despised them! What changed your mind?”

“I-” Saturn looked to Logan for help, for an escape from this conversation. But Logan seemed to be just as curious.

“Well, we are about to go fight. I will admit that I am interested in knowing too, and who knows if we’ll get another chance to talk about it?”

Saturn was silent for several long seconds, staring at the ground. Roman frowned, watching. He went to put his hand on his shoulder, but hesitated, and let it drop to his side.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to say,” He said slowly, his tone making it painfully obvious that he didn’t really want Saturn to decide not to tell him, but was forcing himself to be patient anyways. It showed his character. He truly did want to do the right thing, and it made Saturn smile. “You can… later, I guess.” He said, “We are happy to have you back, though. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, I know… It’s whatever.” Saturn muttered as they continued walking. The silence killing him, he sighed, “It’s just… there’s not much to tell, I guess. Just… one human showed me that they weren’t all bad. Some do deserve a chance.”

“Thomas?” Logan asked, and Saturn shook his head. “Someone else on the ship?” When Saturn shook his head no to that as well, he frowned deeper, “If none of them, then who-”

“Look out!” Roman shouted, shoving Saturn and Logan across the room as a part of the wall closed in. They fell to the ground, noticing the new hole forming in the ceiling, sucking out any remaining oxygen from the ship along with any other loose materials in the hall. 

“Hope they have insurance on this thing,” Saturn muttered sarcastically, suddenly grateful that the room they had left the three in was completely sealed off. The oxygen would stay in there. He let himself phase out, and moments later, he found himself outside of the ship, floating next to Mars and Mercury. Across from them were Jupiter and Uranus, smiling. But upon noticing Saturn was there, the grin dropped from their faces.

“So, you truly are with them now, aren’t you?” Jupiter signed slowly, looking to his friend and seeming to ignore the two Planets on either side of him. “Or have you not dropped your act yet?”

“It’s no act.” Saturn replied, clenching his jaw and staring straight ahead. “You can’t kill them. I won’t let you.” He felt a hand on his left shoulder, and Logan smiled encouragingly. Roman took over for him.

“We won’t let you.” He signed confidently, “So just give it up! Leave the humans alone. Let them live.”

“Aw bro, you know we can’t do that.” Uranus picked up where Jupiter left off. Roman narrowed his eyes. “But it was nice of you to suggest that! Now it’s my turn to suggest something.”

“What’s that?”

“How about,” Uranus grinned so wide it was almost unnatural, teeth as perfectly white as his eyes. “we fight?”

It was those words that sent their world into chaos. The attacks began almost immediately, Uranus going after Roman while Jupiter went after the remaining two. The insults and witty comebacks ceased as hands were instead used to physically stike. They had known this day would one day come, when the divided family reunited. But they were broken and shattered, and when they met, they would only cut one another. Each piece was cursed to be forever alone, and each individual’s inner peace was gone.

So they fought. Mars was a Planet of passion, and there was no passion greater than that of anger. It fueled him so he was fast and strong, and he could use that against Uranus. Going only by their raw strength and speed, Mars could easily beat him. It would take no time at all for him to win that kind of hypothetical battle, but there was something else that Uranus had going for him. He had had billions of years to perfect his art of unpredictibility.

“Hey Mars,” Uranus signed using the hand that wasn’t grasping the other’s wrist, holding it away so he wouldn’t be punched. “Or Roman? That’s the human name you call yourself now, huh? You know, while I do think that part is stupid, I don’t think all of humanity is all that bad.”

“I doubt that.” Roman signed back, yanking his arm back and glaring at the other Planet, “You couldn’t possibly find anything about them valuable, not when you act like this.”

“No, really!” He swore, grin never fading. “In fact, I visited not too long ago to check out what they’ve done to Earth, and I realized that I really do love their weapons of war! In fact, I decided to make one for myself!” He tapped his chin in deep thought, “I would’ve stolen one, but the humans’ wouldn’t do much against someone like us. So I made one myself that would.” Seemingly summoned out of nowhere, a long, silver colored weapon appeared in the Planet’s hand, armed with a spiked orb at the top. “I believe this one is called a mace. It’s pretty cool, right?”

Uranus didn’t wait for Roman to reply, and had swung it down before he could even open his mouth to reply. Mars was out cold.

“Maybe you should have gotten one too, Mars, I heard the katanas were pretty cool.” Uranus mocked, well aware he wouldn’t get an answer. Still grinning, he now turned his attention to Jupiter’s battle with Saturn and Mercury.

They all noticed immediately. “What the hell Uranus?!” Logan shoved Jupiter away from him, staring at the other Planet in shock, “What was that?”

Uranus grinned, “You jealous Logan? I didn’t take you for that kind of guy but if you want the same treatment-”

“Oh my god Uranus, would you just shut up for once in your life!?” Saturn switched his attention to the other Planet, as did Logan. True to his word, Uranus did swing at Mercury, but he dodged easily. He was the fastest of all of the Planets. Quick in both thinking and flying, it would be impossible for anyone else to keep up with him. He never forgot about Jupiter behind him or Uranus ahead, and could easily dodge attacks from both. His home may have been thought of as a dead, broken planet, but he was as alive as ever. He could evade anything.

But Saturn couldn’t. He had been knocked back by Jupiter, and Uranus was coming closer, mace held high. Mercury had only a split second to make his decision, and whether it was the wisest one or not, he didn’t know. But he did know one thing; he had waited millions of years for his friend to return, and he wasn’t going to lose him again. He claimed to be above the careless and selfless love and friendship that Venus had told him were worth everything, but all his words turned out to be lies as he threw himself in front of Saturn. 

Saturn stared in shock, now the only one left conscious. He looked up at the two Planets, floating above him and staring cruelly down. He bit the inside of his cheek harshly until he could taste blood, and held his breath. This was it. They had fought, and they had lost. Every life they had spent so long protecting… it had all been pointless. In the end they couldn’t come through on their promise to the captain. Jupiter had ensured it was all a lie.

As though to flaunt his victory, Jupiter edged closer, his smile never once leaving. His lips moved to match the words as his fingers signed them, pushing the symbolic knife in deeper. It would haunt Saturn until the end of time. While no sound could be heard in the eternal void they were in, he could still hear the vindictive voice in his head as clear as day. Cruel and cold, it dripped with venom. It was ironic, wasn’t it? While it had taken billions of years for their sister to create life, it would take only three simple words for her brother to end it all. It was inhumane, yet that was what made it unbelievably fitting.

“It’s over, Saturn.” He tilted his head to the side.

“Or should I say... Virgil?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Near death scenario, minor swearing, characters getting knocked unconscious, fighting, weapons, and Remus makes one (kinda subtle?) inappropriate joke


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One warning for this chapter, please see the end notes

Virgil.

His world seemed to stop when that name was spoken. The name flung him into the past, back to thousands of years ago, back to a small village just outside of ancient Rome. Back to his hidden time on Earth. Back to what he thought had been his best kept secret.

“How… How did you-” Saturn signed slowly, before letting his hands drop. Jupiter just laughed. 

“What, did you think we didn’t see you sneak down to Earth? We always did, we just never said anything, figuring you had a good reason.” He signed. “We trusted you at first. We knew that obviously you weren’t down there befriending any humans and betraying everything we’ve ever stood for.” His sarcasm bled through his words.

History flashed before Saturn’s eyes as his horrifying present lingered still. The words he heard so long ago came back to haunt him.

_ “Who are you?” _ Saturn recalled a small voice asking him. The memory called to him, beckoning him back. He let it pull him in.

_ “Who am I?” Saturn replied, looking at the young girl in front of him, “What does that matter? You aren’t supposed to be here anyways, you’re a long way from home - you are from the village, right?” _

_ She nodded, pushing tangled locks of hair away from her face. They only fell right back in place, but Saturn got a good look and was able to see how young she truly was. She couldn’t have been older than ten or eleven, but was probably even younger. He tilted his head, thankful he had chosen to finally shift into a human disguise only an hour earlier. _

_ “Then why are you here?” _

_ “I don’t like home.” She admitted softly, hope in her eyes. “You won’t tell them I’m here, will you?” _

Flashes of light caught Saturn’s eye, tearing away the memory. He knew it still had a grip on him though, and he would soon return to it. He watched Uranus balance his weapon in one hand. A sick grin appeared on his face as he took over for Jupiter.

“But then I followed you!” He announced, and Saturn could only imagine his dark laugh, “And what did I find you doing? Caring for a human child! Ridiculous!”

_ The girl’s worries were unfounded, because Saturn didn’t tell them, whoever ‘they’ were in the first place. He let her come in secret. She returned daily; Cassia was her name. Every morning she showed up in the forest where Saturn was staying, and she never left until the sun was setting, even though Saturn rarely acknowledged her while she was there. She never tried to bother him. She simply sat, entertaining herself by fashioning makeshift human figures out of the sticks and twigs she found. It was the fourth day of her visits that Saturn let his curiousity get the best of him. _

_ “Why don’t you like home?” He asked her that day. She paused, slowly and carefully setting the doll she had been creating down as she considered her answer. She spoke cautiously. _

_ “Mother died a few months ago, our house caught on fire...” She said slowly, “And Father… he isn’t nice. He hasn’t been since she died. I don’t want to be with him.” _

_ “Don’t you have friends your own age?” He asked. _

_ “The other kids don’t like me.” Cassia said, looking up at him sadly. Saturn noticed the burn scars across her skin, creating rough patches around her arms and necks, just barely covered by dark and messy tangled locks of hair. “They make fun of me. They said I look like a monster! They call me names, like the Dragon Witch.” Her gaze shifted down to the dirt, and she used her finger to doodle happy and sad faces in the dust below, giving her something to do. “I don’t want to be around them either. Here is nicer. You’re nice. You aren’t mean to me.” _

Saturn didn’t respond to Uranus, and didn’t move. They would continue their taunts regardless, he knew.

“We thought you went down there to give them what they deserved, Saturn.” Jupiter’s expression shifted suddenly and without warning, saddened, “Don’t you remember what they did?” 

Saturn knew what response he wanted, but he wouldn’t answer. He wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Jupiter would have to finish, and so he did.

“They killed our sister.”

_ Saturn extended his visit on Earth longer than he expected to. Cassia continued to come back, and it caused him to argue with himself constantly. Weren’t the humans supposed to be evil? Weren’t they all murderers? Didn’t that include Cassia? It was true that Saturn knew the only reason she was alive was because she possessed Earth’s lifeforce… But she was a child. She was innocent; she didn’t mean to steal it. She didn’t even know his sister had ever existed, and even if she had… Well, Earth had been gone long, long before her birth. _

_ Cassia returned to his little spot in the forest everyday, and Saturn grew fond of her. He loved her and found himself wanting to protect her and watch her grow up to become who she was meant to be. With a start, he remembered what Earth had said all those years ago. _

_ Was this what Earth had meant when she said they were her children? That she was their mother? That she cared for them? _

“Every single one of them is guilty, Saturn.” Jupiter signed, hovering ever closer. “They all are thieves and murderers, and not one of them is innocent. Why can’t you remember that?”

_ “Look!” Cassia had said one day, about a month after their first meeting. She smiled and held up a doll proudly, eyes sparkling with excitement.  _

_ “Is that…” Saturn stared in confusion, before gently reaching out and taking the doll. It was thin and light, a dark cloth draped over it as a robe, with silver thread coming from its head and covering where he supposed one eye was supposed to be. “Is this me?” _

_ She nodded excitedly, “Yes!” Then she paused, frowning and looking up at him curiously. She asked her question timidly, “And it… what do I call him?” _

_ “What do you call- oh!” Saturn exclaimed, realizing what she meant. He paused, tilting his head up in gentle consideration for several moments. _

_ He handed it back to her carefully, smiling gently. “You can call him…” He whispered, “You can call him Virgil.” _

“They’re not all guilty…” Saturn signed slowly, clenching his jaw. “Some of them really are innocent..”

“Oh they are, huh?” Jupiter mocked, shaking his head. He looked to Uranus, “Well of course. It’s not like every single one of them carry stolen life. It’s not like if they hadn’t existed, Earth would still be alive. It’s not like not one of them is even grateful enough to remember her!”

“He’s got a point, Sat.” Uranus signed, “I think we should take them out now. Starting with… that ship.”

_ “What do you mean you’re leaving?” Cassia asked, staring in shock. “You… You can’t leave! You can’t leave me!”  _

_ Virgil watched the young girl sadly, hating he had to leave his new family, his new sister. He had already been on Earth for a year, and he knew he couldn’t stay. It wasn’t healthy for him; he wasn’t built to live on this planet, not to mention he was worried about Uranus and Jupiter. He hadn’t seen them in a while now and even though his views on everything were being completely destroyed, he still missed his family. _

_ He knew he would miss his new family too, but he also knew he couldn’t stay.  _

_ “I’m sorry Cassia…” He said slowly, “But I-” He was interrupted as Cassia ran at him and launched herself into a hug. He stared at her in surprise for several moments, before slowly hugging her back. He was thankful he had long sleeves on - he knew his skin didn’t feel human. Even his human form couldn’t mask the winds of gas and storms that made up his body, that made up his home.  _

_ “Will you come back?” _

_ Several long moments passed, and Virgil looked up at the sky above him. Twinkling in the distance, he saw his home, and he focused on it. He missed it. He missed it greatly, and he would miss his sister just as much. Shutting his eyes, he slowly nodded.  _

_ “I will one day. I promise.” _

Saturn watched in horror as Uranus raised his hand towards the ship and it began to shake. He watched as the walls were violently crushed, one by one, heading down the halls and towards the room where Patton guarded Thomas and Giovanni, where the rest of the crew slept peacefully. If he reached that room… 

“No, wait-” He gasped, momentarily forgetting that his voice wouldn’t work now. He held out a hand. This couldn’t happen.

_ Cassia smiled gently, laying in a soft bed and holding the hand of her daughter tightly. Her eyes were tired, and she tried to soothe her own daughter’s tears with her soft voice. She was very old, after all. Death was only to be expected. _

_ “Dear?” A soft knock on the door frame caught her attention, and she looked up to see her wife standing in the doorway. “There’s someone here to meet you.” _

_ Cassia frowned, wondering who it could be. She nodded anyways, “Let them in.” She said calmly, only to gasp when she saw who had entered. She felt tears well up in her eyes as she stared in shock. _

_ “Virgil?” _

_ The young silver haired man smiled and walked over to her, kneeling on the floor behind her sadly. “Hi Cassia.” _

_ “How are you…” She stared at her older brother in disbelief; how had he not aged a day? How was he here? Was it truly him? She didn’t know, but she did know one thing. She reached out and pulled him into a tight hug. “It’s been so long… I missed you.” _

_ “I know I said I would come back, and never said when but… I’m still gonna apologize for waiting until now.” Virgil smiled sadly, hugging her back. She shook her head.  _

_ “No… don’t,” She whispered, “Just… thank you for coming back. Thank you so much.” _

“No!” Saturn rose up, holding his left hand out and fighting for the control that Uranus had of the ship. The cracking of the metal stopped just before it met the room filled with the humans, those walls being the only thing that kept them alive. He held on tightly, quickly placing himself between Jupiter and Uranus and the ship. He used his other hand to sign rapidly.

“You won’t hurt them.”

“Saturn, don’t make us fight you.” Jupiter’s eyes narrowed, while Uranus continued to try to gain control back of the ship. “You’ll lose.”

“You can’t hurt the humans.” Saturn shook his head, “You can’t.”

“They killed Earth.”

“They are Earth!” Saturn ignored the tears welling up in his eyes, the truths he had known for years finally spilling out, as floodgates of hidden revelations broke open. “Why can’t you see that?”

“What the hell are you-”

“Look at them!” Saturn begged, “Look at them! Look at how hard their doctor fought to save the pilot; tell me that’s not Earth. Look at how often their navigator stresses himself out trying to help the others; tell me that’s not Earth. Look at how much the captain cares for his crew; tell me that’s not Earth.” He clenched his jaw tightly, squeezing his eyes shut for his next words. “I saw Earth in all of them. I saw Earth in humanity years ago, when I met Cassia and saw her talents and her love. When I saw her pain and saw how… how similar she was to her mother, our sister.”

Saturn lowered his arm when he saw Uranus had ceased his attempts of fighting for the ship. He watched the other Planet alongside Jupiter, his eyes wide. Saturn felt a tear escape down his cheek, and sighed deeply.

“Earth never died. She lives in all of them. She is humanity, she always has been.”

“Saturn-”

“My name is Virgil.” He mouthed the words as he signed them, “And I will protect Earth… I should have done that years ago. You won’t kill her. She can’t die again.”

No one moved for a long time. Though space was always quiet, this silence seemed even more deafening than usual. They stayed there, mute and unmoving, with only the twinkling of the stars in the background providing any change in scenery. Virgil knew he had more to say.

“I…” He slowly approached Jupiter and Uranus, floating in front of them. “I know you miss her… I do too. But… When Mom gave her life to us, we didn’t kill her. We didn’t kill the sun. The humans are no different.” He looked them both in the eye, one by one. “Killing them won’t bring her back.”

“If they didn’t kill her, then she chose them over us.” Jupiter signed slowly. “She couldn’t…”

“She didn’t.” Virgil shook his head. “She just entrusted us to take care of them for her. They are both her and her children. She wanted us to watch over them.”

Jupiter laughed bitterly, his eyes shining just a bit too brightly, and Virgil knew he was holding tears back. “That makes no sense. She knew we hated them. She knew that, and she still left us.”

“She’s still here.” Virgil argued, “We just have to see that. I saw that when I met Cassia and…. And you both can too.” He looked over to where Roman and Logan lie motionless and unconscious. “We can’t keep going on like this. We’ve destroyed too much already… but we can fix it.”

“Seems a little too late for that, doesn’t it Sat?” Uranus shook his head. 

“It’s not!” Virgil told him, then turned to Jupiter, eyes pleading. The other Planet’s face remained dark and grim, his expression not releasing any hints to what he was thinking. Virgil knew he had one chance to fix this, and one chance only.

Virgil took a deep breath, holding his hand out to him in an offering of peace. “Jupiter, please… We don’t have to fight. We can be a family again. Not just us three, but the family we used to be. All of us.”

The seconds ticked on like hours, and the minutes seemed to be centuries. Virgil refused to relent, never letting his eyes leave Jupiter’s. The ship remained dark, and Virgil wondered how the humans were now, if they were worried or scared, or even hopeful. He prayed that it was the last.

Finally, Jupiter let his own eyes meet Virgil’s. “Fine.” He signed first, a light returning to his eyes that hadn’t been there since his sister’s death. He took his brother’s hand.

“Let’s give this a shot.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Mentions of death/someone dying


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No warnings this chapter, but please read the end notes when you're done!!!

Thomas was alive.

Staring at the scene before him, he could hardly believe that it was real. The ship, nearly destroyed, was alive. His crew, still fast asleep, was alive. His friend, a literal AI, was alive. He, still shaking with adrenaline, was alive. 

The Planets had returned around two hours after they had first left, this time with two more beings following them. Thomas and Giovanni had only seen a glimpse of them, but it didn’t take a genuis to determine their identities. They were Uranus and Jupiter. He panicked at first, but Patton went to talk to everyone, and soon came back with tears in his eyes. Thomas knew he would never be able to truly understand the pure joy that radiated from Venus as he cried out that they had made up, that they would try to learn how to be a family again, no matter how hard it would be. He knew he was several billion years too late to ever understand, but he could practically feel the Planet’s happiness in his bones, and he was sure Giovanni felt the same. It made him smile. 

Giovanni would later confess his own happiness mostly came from the fact that if they were cool, they probably wouldn’t try to destroy everyone onboard the ship again. Thomas was inclined to agree that that was a valid reason to be happy.

While Thomas and Giovanni stayed in their safe room, the Planets repaired the ship - though Logan came by several times to ask Giovanni a question about the structure of the spacecraft. Within an hour, it was as good as new, and Thomas and Giovanni were allowed to enter the hall. Thomas stared in amazement.

“Wow… you can’t even tell it was damaged,” He breathed out, walking slowly down the halls and dragging his hand down the wall, feeling the smooth metal, completely absent of any cracks. It was almost like magic. Though, Thomas supposed, in a way it kind of was. 

“Well, that is the idea,” Logan said, standing near the human and his friend. Though his words were monotone, Thomas could see a hint of pride hidden in his eyes. Fixing a human ship as someone who had never built one or had any proper training was an impressive feat. “All we had to do was first repair the actual structure, before we could begin to fix the wiring and -”

“Oh, just let him be impressed, Teach!” Roman interrupted, throwing his arm over the shoulders of his now annoyed friend, grinning. “Save the lesson for another day.”

Patton and Giovanni laughed at this while Logan quietly grumbled, though evidentally not annoyed enough to shove Roman away. It was a nice sight, the three Planets acting so happy after such a stressful situation. But something was still off, and Thomas looked around before asking no one in particular what he had been wondering.

“I thought I saw Jupiter and Uranus come here, and Saturn too, where did they go?”

“They left.” Thomas jumped when Saturn appeared behind him, grinning mischeviously. Thomas glared when he realized he had meant to scare him. Saturn chuckled,“I’m still here though.”

“Jupiter and Uranus are willing to, a little reluctantly, give humans a ‘second chance’, so to speak.” Logan explained, “But they aren’t going to befriend you or talk to you just like that. If that does happen, which there is a chance it never will, it will probably take a while. Especially for Jupiter.”

“Our while is a lot longer than their while, Lo,” Patton reminded, looking sympathetically at Thomas and Giovanni. “But they aren’t going to hurt you kiddos anymore, that’s the good news!”

“And we’ll still be visiting!” Roman announced, then looked pointedly at Saturn from across the room, “All four of us, whether we like it or not!” 

Saturn shifted uncomfortably, glancing towards Thomas and Giovanni. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” He asked slowly, voice low and eyes dim, “I mean after all that… I really don’t think they are going to want me to visit.”

“You do terrify me,” Thomas admited, grinning slightly.“But honestly, all of you kinda do, considering we’ve all almost died several dozen times since I found out you guys exist. I am still physically shaking from all that. So it’s probably fine, it’s not you in particular.” Giovanni laughed, evidentally in agreement.

Saturn still looked nervous. When Roman - and Patton too - looked about ready to beg again, Logan cut in.

“Now Roman, if he doesn’t want to-”

“No, it’s fine,” Saturn sighed, holding up a hand to stop Logan, but still nodding a silent thanks. “I guess I’ll visit some.” 

“Good!!” Roman laughed, then grinned, “Speaking of which…You sir, are going to need a human name like us if you’re gonna be hanging out more!”

“Wait did you not hear Jup-” Saturn stopped, then groaned loudly, burying his face in one hand in exasperation, “Oh right, you two were unconscious. You’re seriously gonna make me go through this all over again?”

The three Planets exchanged confused glances. Giovanni and Thomas didn’t bother looking especially confused; neither of them had had a clue of what was going on since before the Planets had shown up anyways. They had already pretty much accepted their constant states of confusion.

Logan was the first to speak, “We’re going to make you say what, may I ask?”

“I…” Saturn seemed to hunch in on himself, before mumbling something no one could make out.

“What did you-”

“I already have one.” The ringed Planet admitted, “I… I have been to Earth since humanity has existed… I have a human name.”

“Seriously??” Roman demanded, while Patton jumped up and down excitedly. “What is it??”

“It’s…” He bit his lip, feet planted firmly on the ground and shoulders tense. Logan frowned once again,

“It’s okay, Saturn, if you don’t want to tell us -”

“No, it’s still fine,” Saturn said again, inhaling deeply, “My name…” He paused for a long time, hesitating out of both anxiety and possibly dramatic effect, and then shouted it all at once. 

“My name is Virgil!”

Silence spread over the ship, everyone carefully considering their responses. That is, until Roman broke it with a muffled laugh.

“Vir-gil? Really?” 

Saturn groaned, “Dude, come on.”

“It’s just strange!” Roman defended, “But… I like it, it suits you.”

Logan nodded in agreement, and Thomas found himself doing the same. “It is nice.”

“That’s your name?” Patton grinned, and Logan’s eyes went wide as he realized what was about to happen.

“Patton don’t-”

“Well, Virgil,” Patton grinned even wider, “I like it.” His pause was clearly for dramatic effect, and he was holding in his own laughter. “In fact… I think it has a nice ring to it.” 

Logan groaned. Virgil held his hand over his mouth and laughed, while Roman just hugged Patton tightly, shouting some dramatic approval despite Logan’s annoyance. He heard Patton admit that he had been saving that for centuries now, which only prompted more laughter.

Giovanni nudged Thomas gently, “So, you glad you didn’t turn around?” He asked, and Thomas nodded, smiling softly to himself.

Maybe some stories do have happy endings after all.

***

Six months later, Virgil sat on one of his moons, staring contendedly up at his home above him. The light from the sun illuminated the rings brilliantly, and It made him smile; he truly believed he was the luckiest of his family. Though all of them would probably say the same about their homes, he knew his was the most beautiful. Nothing could compare, and he would stand by that belief for eternity. It was just a fact to him.

He may feel bad about him sometimes, but it was never for the world he had gotten lucky enough to represent the life of.

Though six meager months seemed to be nothing when contrasted with the rest of his long life, they had certainly been some of the most eventful. The humans continued to travel out into the universe and had made great discoveries. None as great as them, of course, but humans seemed to get pretty excited over photos of cool planets and stars and distant galaxies. They were happy with that. 

He knew this because he spent a fair amount of time on their ship now. When he had initially agreed to visit, he never would have expected to be there nearly every day. He and the three terrestrial Planets were there so often they may as well have been considered crew members themselves… even if the majority didn’t know they existed. Besides Thomas and Giovanni, the only crew members who knew they existed were Joan, Remy, Emile, and Talyn, who had figured out something was going on on their own and confronted Joan about it. So that led to a total of five living humans knowing about their existence, six if you counted Giovanni. But considering he didn’t hold any of Earth’s life, only Mars’, maybe he was more martian than of Earth anyways. Actually, if having Earth’s life was the qualification he was looking for here, did Joan even count? Venus had given them some of his life when he healed them, so maybe they weren’t completely human anymore. Virgil didn’t really know, or particularily care.

He somehow managed to befriend the humans too, in a way. He was no longer constantly on the defense whenever he was around them, and likewise was no longer always scaring them. They had come to a sort of mutual understanding. It was nice, and had made him realize just how right he was when he told Jupiter and Uranus that the humans were Earth. He could see her in every interaction now, every conversation and every meeting. While it would never be the same as what he once had, it was good enough for him.

As for his relationship with the rest of his family… It was improving every day. It took a lot of effort from all of them; billions of years of fighting didn’t just disappear on its own. In the beginning, and even now, they had to force themselves to be civil. But each day they got better, and they knew it was worth it. He hadn’t even realized how much they had missed each other, and he had a feeling neither did anyone else. Two missing members still created a hole they couldn’t fill, but it was more than anything they had for what felt like an eternity.

Mars and Uranus found their close brotherhood again, which had been lost for so long. They still bickered and sometimes they were afraid it would fall apart, but it didn’t. They were okay, and they were both determined to keep it like that if it killed them. After a while, Uranus went on and repaired his relationship with Mercury and Venus too, and the family grew stronger. The division that they thought had been unmendable was proving not to be. It filled them all with hope.

Uranus even got comfortable enough to visit the humans too. He scared them a bit - okay, that was an understatement. He was a Planet of eccentricity and new ideas, and some of those ideas could be disturbing. But eventually they realized he meant no real harm. It helped that these traits helped him to change his mindset so quickly too.

After around a month of this, he chose a human name as well. Remus. 

Jupiter, on the other hand, was a different story. Virgil could tell he was doing his best, he really was, but it was clear it was hard. He still rarely went to the humans; the one and only time he had been there was to get Remus, as he was needed. Emile and Remy had been the only ones in the room and watched him in awe, only for Jupiter to glare at them with murderous distrust. He left within two minutes of his arrival. He may have agreed not to harm the humans, but he never agreed to talk to them.

Virgil sighed. His distrust had extended to the other Planets as well. He wanted to have the family he used to have, but billions of years of hate and fighting took a toll on him especially. It would take a while for him to get things to return to how they once were. For now, he would do his best to be civil, and try to pull the distant memories of his family’s old happiness back into his mind.

A star shone brightly in the distance, catching Virgil’s eye. The sky was beautiful, and he knew he’d never grow tired of staring out into the great expanse of space. He had been staring at it for billions of years… yet, there was always something new to see. It was truly amazing.

The light grew, and Virgil frowned. That wasn’t normal. He quickly rose to his feet, before hovering gently in the air just above the rocky surface. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a star, he realized. It was much too small and much too close, and it seemed to be speeding up. Virgil clenched his jaw, hoping it wasn’t an asteroid. He really liked this landscape and didn’t feel like taking the effort needed to block the meteor… It looked like he may need to, though.

Sighing, he rose up out of the atmosphere of the moon to meet whatever it was. It wasn’t too far now, and would reach him any second. He prepared to stop it, holding his arms out and breathing in deeply.

Looking back on this moment, Saturn would wonder why it took so long for him to realize what it really was. In his defense, this was not something any of them would ever expect to see. Not in a billion years.

“Wait…” He mouthed silently to himself, squinting and trying to get the light to focus. He had begun to see the form of it take shape, two legs and a flowing gown, too thin arms and a worried face. It was…Virgil froze. No, it couldn’t be.

It shouldn’t have been possible, but it was. Virgil stared in shock as the form flew straight up to him, stopping only a few feet away and breathing deeply with wide fearful eyes. He was signing something to him, but Virgil’s mind couldn’t comprehend the words. He couldn’t focus on that. His mind could only form one word, and his shakey hands rose up to his chest as he signed it.

“Pluto?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!! Thank you so much for reading. That concludes The Origin (yes I know I’m evil for ending on a cliffhanger)
> 
> I really hope you guys enjoyed the story. There will be a sequal, but I’m not entirely sure how long it will take until it’s published. I want to wait until more progresses in the actual canon series, since I don’t want to make Neptune (and possibly Pluto too) OCs. But we’ll see what happens. 
> 
> While this book is over, the story is not. In between this ending and the sequal, I’m still going to be writing for it! I’m going to be starting a oneshot book on here and on Tumblr, @TSOriginAU, for events that happen in the 6 month period Virgil mentioned. It won’t have a real plot, it’ll just be fun scenes I thought of and wanted to include but couldn’t without sacrificing some plot points. It will all be canon to my story though.
> 
> Asks on tumblr for both me and the characters will remain open indefinitely and I’ll still be active on there to post more art and here. I’ll also be writing some other stories if you guys wanna check that out! I’ll be posting them on here and on tumblr @Justasimplefanficaccount. I will also be starting on another big project like this that I haven’t completely decided on yet, so be on the lookout for that!
> 
> Thank you guys again for reading, and I’ll see you soon

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter 1 Trigger Warnings: Just one cuss word


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